Salt Lake City Airport

Not Verified | I live in Park City and own a tourism driven business. In the past, I would brag to my clients how easy it was to fly in and out of SLC airport. It was efficient, welcoming, well marked, and had great food & beverage options. Having flown in and out in November-December 2020, I can no longer say that. Whoever designed and then approved the design of the new airport should be publicly fired and publicized so the persons/companies involved never get another chance to screw up a good thing. I actually used the pedometer on my phone when returning to SLC. It was over a mile and a quarter walk from my Southwest gate to baggage claim. There were a few moving sidewalks, but even so, with a heavy carry-on (same one I've used for years), a mask, and the exhaustion of flying several hours with plane changes, it was ridiculous. There were few places to sit and rest along the way and no places to get a needed beverage. I'm a fairly healthy 64 year old woman with minor back and knee issues. That walk left me in pain for 2 days. Why are there not trams like other large airports? Who actually thought this mess was a good idea? If I had another option, I'd use it. It's a mess and needs to be completely renovated now before someone has a heart attack or worse on the mile+ walk. The silly looking waves sculptures should be taken down and traded in for a few needed golf carts.

✅ Trip Verified | The people of Utah got bilked. For a new wonderful airport, it was awful. I travel weekly for work and have done so for the past 10 years, apart from current COVID impacts. And I would much rather have been in the old SLC airport than the new one. First, off-site parking doesn't get to pull even close to the terminal. You have to traverse the rental car garage, really. Even Denver lets them pull on the outer lanes. Then if you have walking issues, like my spouse, you are hosed. Extreme lack of moving walk ways, and then the ones they have are like 20 years ago. Look at Denver, they need to be wider! Allowing people both to stand and walk without hitting bags or feeling like you are pushed to the side. And seating, who cares about the wonderful silhouettes of the canyons, people need comfortable places to sit, especially when they need to rest after walking from one end of the terminal to the baggage claim. And for baggage claim, again, not enough signs to find the right baggage claim. It was too much walking, and didn't make sense that passenger ride shares can pull up to terminal, but off-site shuttles are banned to the 'west 40'. I was just not impressed. I walked as much in SLC as I did in ATL, a much older airport, with no moving walkways in the gate terminals, where I had to go from an A gate to a D gate. So for a new state of the art airport, way too much unused space and total lack of moving walk ways. Not sure who this airport was designed for. Must have just looked good on paper. But is terrible in usefulness and reality. Really let down by the new airport.

Not Verified | Horrible design. My plane was at gate A2. My son was flying out of B24. I had to walk what seemed like a mile (didn't the designers/architects visit Detroit to find out how to get people from one end of the terminal to another?) and my son had to walk about 2/3 of it, only to have to then proceed down an escalator, walk to the B terminal, then walk back to the east another 1/4 mile in order to then ride a bus to his plane. Unbelievable. The entrance is beautiful, I enjoy the aesthetics but once past the entrance/security hall, the airport looks like every other major city airport but way less efficient. The beauty is quickly forgotten when you are walking over a mile, wearing a mask, dragging suitcases. People should be fired over this.

Not Verified | Almost everything is worse, hardly anything is better. New airport is a complete design failure. Customer experience was never a consideration. I had high hopes for the new modernized airport as I travel out of SLC several times a month. Let's start with parking. Economy lot is exactly the same except the busses are running slower. Parking garage is about the same but less convenient now. Skycap is missing. WiFi is still slow and terrible. The long walk to terminal B for absolutely no good reason at all. Prepare for a hike, bring running shoes, water etc. Just remember to enjoy the gigantic, over-sized "artwork" on the walls of the terminal. They cut budget for a tram but the costly sculptures remain. Enjoy! Entrance - worse, like everything else. Be prepared to visit all 3 floors just to catch a flight. You might arrive at street level, up to level 3 to check in then back down to level 2 for TSA and to the gates. Whoever designed the airport was definitely buddies with the escalator company. Complete with people dragging their bags and kids up and down escalators because the airport was not designed for customers. They severely overlooked the importance of the entrance and check-in process. TSA - Worse, slower. Newer does not mean faster when it comes to the TSA. New bins are terrible, slow and there's a good chance your bin comes out the other side without everything you put in it! Watching the TSA poke around the machine with their stick, trying to find lost items is kind of amusing when it's not my item. Food - Less choices. The same restaurants as before like Squatters but got rid of the cheap stuff and fast food. I enjoy the nicer restaurants but sometimes just need something quick and cheap. Not enough coffee shops, not enough anything. The new strip of designer stores are a fail, empty or nearly empty every time I've walked by. Trying to have a mini-mall instead of more food options serves nobody. Prices in the convenience stores have gone up considerably. The good, barely. Pickup area is bigger. Previously, the lanes were sandwiched between the terminal and parking garage and could never be expanded. Same design but starting out bigger and should be adequate for now. Sitting areas not near the gates are larger, more spaced out and have plenty of electrical outlets and charge ports. Airport isn't completed, apparently they will chip away for years before it's done. There's a chance things will improve but several more years of transitional airport operations due to ongoing construction has the potential to suck.

Not Verified | I have 6 million miles. 80 countries. 300 airports. This is the worst airport I’ve ever seen. Did a whole team of monkeys draw this up? It is over a mile hike from security to the entrance to terminal B. No tram. A couple of people movers. A multi billion $ catastrophe.

Not Verified | Complaints about the layout are spot on. Whoever designed it is either malicious or an idiot. I thought there was going to be another terminal added, but instead they added an extra set of gates a half mile away (more?) that you have to walk after security. There’s no access to outside drop-off/pick-up the way there would be with a new terminal. I held onto a misplaced optimism that this would be rectified and I think I finally realized today that it’s not coming. What a joke.

✅ Trip Verified | Too much walking. Layout / concept is somewhat similar to Denver, they should have just copied Denver. I think time should be minimized getting through an airport, this is more like a day trip. It's awful to see families with children / seniors struggling to get where they need to go. They need more moving walkways and they need to have the speed turned up. This is an embarrassment and total waste of money. Not a good look for Salt Lake City.

Not Verified | I have flown to Utah twice a year or more for a very long time. This so called new layout is the worst I have ever experienced in my years of flying. I am a senior and have trouble walking long distances. This new design is the worst design I have seen. I have traveled to many different airports. SLC international airport is so far the worst airport I have ever traveled to. I cringe when I think about going back to that airport.

Not Verified | The walk to terminal B is a joke. I have walked numerous airports in the USA and this surpasses them all for ridiculous design. From the time you get through TSA, you should expect a 20 minute brisk walk to arrive at a B gate. The locations where off airport Parking shuttles drop off is a good 10 minute walk to the TSA lines. Overall a colossal fail in design. They keep touting the new updated look, but who takes time to look at the updates when you spend most of your time transiting to the gate.

Not Verified | This is the worst new airport ever. Who designed this catastrophe. Too far to walk anywhere. Not enough trams (none) or people movers. Should have kept the old one.