“The Most Substantial economic development growth project for northern Michigan in a couple of decades.”

That’s how Paul Beachnau, board chair for the Northwest Regional Airport Authority, frames Gates to the Future, the ambitious expansion project that will add new four gates, an expanded security checkpoint area, and other upgrades and amenities to the terminal at Traverse City’s Cherry Capital Airport (TVC). Friday marked the official groundbreaking for the project, which is slated for a spring 2028 completion.

Built in 2004, TVC’s existing terminal was designed to accommodate the 350,000 annual passengers the airport was serving at the time. Fast-forward to 2026, and the terminal is drastically undersized compared to TVC’s growing demand.  In 2025, the passenger number was up to 935,816 passengers – an all-time record, and one that has TVC eyeing what could be its first million-passenger year in 2026.

“That’s unheard of in the United States,” TVC CEO Kevin Klein said at Friday’s groundbreaking event. “I don't only know one other airport that is growing that fast.”

According to Klein, the growth has pushed the airport to the limit – to the point where the undersized terminal is now actively constraining TVC’s ability to meet demand.

“[The terminal] limits us on bringing the additional seats into the market that we really need,” Klein tells The Ticker. “It was designed for smaller regional jets, but today we're seeing all mainline aircraft. A regional jet typically carries 50 passengers. We're seeing jets carrying 160, 172, and 190 passengers. We’re going to make sure we have enough space to handle both sides – the departures and the arrivals. This expansion is going to provide the comfort and the space that the new airlines need to operate, whereas they're a little cramped and confined right now.”

The project carries a price tag of $120 million. Half of that will be covered by a mix of airport revenue, state grants, and federal funding. For the other half, the airport has “the full faith and credit backing of Grand Traverse County” to issue up to $71 million in bonds. $60 million of that money will help fund construction, with the other $11 million covering financing costs. This formula, the airport noted in materials provided to attendees at Friday’s groundbreaking, “ensures the project will be completed without relying on local tax dollars.”

In addition to expanding TVC’s number of gates from five to nine, Gates to the Future will add space and amenities to passenger holdrooms, implement an apron expansion to accommodate additional aircraft, upgrade its security checkpoint to enhance screening capacity and efficiency, add a new concessions area, and more.

Klein sees the project as a green light for TVC to go after more air service opportunities, including new carriers and additional flights from existing carriers, with a special emphasis on nonstop travel. In 2004, TVC was served by four different airlines and had just five nonstop routes available. In 2016, the airport has six carriers and 19 nonstop routes. Klein wants to see both numbers grow, and says those conversations are already happening with carriers, in anticipation of the expanded terminal’s Memorial Day 2028 completion target.

“Talks are ongoing with the current carriers, on retaining service and growing service; and they are ongoing with future carriers, about the potential to come in as a new carrier servicing northern Michigan,” Klein says.

Beachnau sees direct flights as a powerful growth driver for Traverse City – hence his claim about the economic development significance of the Gates to the Future project.

“This project is just making us more globally accessible, and that’s so important because of all it translates into,” Beachnau explains. “At the Pure Michigan conference this year – which was held here in Traverse this year – the phrase being passed around about this place is that ‘It starts with a visit.’ I grew up here, but a lot of people come up here for a trip and discover that this is where they want to be. This expansion allows for more of that to happen.”

“There’s no downside,” concurs Trevor Tkach, president and CEO of Traverse City Tourism, citing everything from quicker passage through airport security for locals to expanded availability of direct flight destinations. He also sees big economic impact potential in a tourism category not often discussed: meetings, conferences, and other group bookings at local hotels.

“A lot of the groups that we meet with, they want to have their executives be able to get a non-stop flight. They don't want to connect once or twice; they just want to be able to get here,” Tkach says. “So, the more direct flights we have, it just opens up more opportunities for places like Grand Traverse Resort and the Delamar, from a meeting standpoint. We don't talk as much about meetings, but it's a really critical piece of the tourism puzzle. It fills mid-week, and it fills the shoulder season, and it’s very important to the sustainability discussion, just in terms of year-round business and year-round jobs in northern Michigan.”

TVC's new gate area, dubbed Concourse B, will be located to the east of the existing terminal, with a “connector building” linking the two together.