Graham Kilmer
Transportation

Airport Begins New International Terminal Project

Airport will begin demolition of old concourse in coming weeks.

By - Sep 16th, 2025 02:56 pm

Officials and project partners pull down Concourse E sign at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. Photo taken Sept. 16, 2025 by Graham Kilmer.

Officials celebrated the development of a new international terminal at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport Tuesday with a modest act of demolition: they pulled down a sign.

The new terminal, which has been in the works for roughly the past decade, will be developed on the site of the former Concourse E. The concourse, built in 1969, has been shuttered since 2017. It will be replaced with a two-gate terminal capable of handling significantly more traffic than the existing international terminal.

So this event today is all about modernization and a more efficient operation at the airport,” said Airport Director Brian Dranzik.

The new terminal was designed by Alliiance, a Minneapolis-based architecture firm, and construction will be led by Findorff. The terminal is expected to be completed by 2027.

The $95.2 million project is being funded largely through airport bonds, which are issued by the airport and repaid using revenue collected from the air carriers that operate out of Milwaukee Mitchell. The project was also awarded two federal Airport Terminal Program grants totaling $13.5 million.

It’s an investment in the people of Milwaukee County,” County Executive David Crowley said at the ceremony Tuesday, “but it’s also an investment in the tourism of Milwaukee County and in turn, meaning it’s an investment in the future of Milwaukee County.”

The airport initially planned to begin construction in 2020, budgeting $55 million for the project that year. But it was put on hold by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent inflation raised costs.

The existing international terminal at Milwaukee Mitchell was built in 1975 and is not connected to the main terminal passengers use for all other flights. It is only able to handle arrivals and is undersized for a modern airport terminal, with a building capacity lower than the capacity of aircraft used on long international flights. The terminal only fits up to 140 people, but a modern wide-body aircraft can carry as many 300.

The new terminal will have fewer gates than the former Concourse E. But that wing of the airport was shuttered eight years ago as part of a right-sizing effort. Only two carriers, United and Air Canada, were flying out of the 10 gate concourse when they shut it down, Dranzik said.

“What we’re trying to do here is right size this down to what our needs are with a two-gate facility,” Dranzik said.

Planning for the new international terminal was already underway when this occurred. Dranzik said they looked at redeveloping Concourse E, as well as the existing international terminal, but decided it made the most sense to demolish and rebuild. Demolition will begin in the coming weeks. The airport has contracted with HM Brandt for the work.

The new terminal will have modern amenities, including restrooms for families, nursing mothers and even pet relief areas, said Jeff Loeschen of Alliiance. The building’s design includes green roofs, and vegetation throughout the interior. Large glass walls will line the concourse with solar shading fans “inspired by local sailing culture and lake life,” Loeschen said. The project will yield 250 construction jobs, said Matt Bruenig, Findorff vice president of operations.

Some air carriers have already expressed excitement about the new facility, Dranzik told Urban Milwaukee. The airport plans to make it available to carriers running both international and domestic flights. It will be able process 400 passengers an hour.

New Terminal Renderings

Concourse E

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Categories: Transportation

Comments

  1. snowbeer says:

    How many regularly scheduled international flights into Mitchell exist today seems to be a key fact missing from this article. It might be far less than one per day.

    The reality is that there is no need for this expansion (especially with southwest likely to start dropping flights out of MKE due to their hostile investor takeover), and another way to explain using bonds to fund it is that carriers will increase their prices so that end consumers pay for it in the end.

  2. KWH says:

    Milwaukee has several international companies. These companies have made a large commitment to the city, like Milwaukee Tool. Presently their employees have to fly into O’Hara and the company needs to transport them to Milwaukee. The new terminal will allow airlines to schedule their flights directly into Milwaukee. The new terminal is not for existing flights but for expansion that cannot happen without it.

  3. snowbeer says:

    @KWH – I’ll strongly wager there will be zero international flights over the next 10 years into MKE from anywhere except seasonal resort destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico, and maybe a Canada flight or two might return. We will see zero flights from Asia, Europe, or South America if that’s what you are implying.

  4. Franklin Furter says:

    If there were reliable, rapid transit from the far north Chicago burbs and IL border communities up to Milwaukee’s airport, transit that avoided heavy auto traffic, accidents, and highway repair season, MKE could stand the chance of becoming a bit of a “third airport” for the Chicago-Milwaukee region—impacting both domestic and international demand. As it is, demand at MKE, even with the major employers and HQs that *do* exist, is probably not enough to move the needle very much. I’d wager most of Kenosha County finds it easier to drive down to ORD and hop on any of hundreds of daily direct flights to myriad destinations.

    I guess air traffic volume includes two kinds of flights—inbound and outbound. Maybe Milwaukee is best able to increase its attractiveness and importance as a destination. Once we get them here, they will always need to return home.

  5. TransitRider says:

    Two points here.

    1) Flights to major Canadian cities don’t count as “international” since all customs and immigration stuff is handled in Canada (US Customs stations people at many Canadian airports—even places with few US flights like Winnipeg)

    2) Having just 2 gates seems limiting, especially if one gate is closed for maintenance (if a jetway fails, for instance).

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