Austin-Bergstrom International Airport broke ground on Concourse M on September 29, 2026, a new six-gate facility designed to give the busy airport breathing room while much larger construction projects reshape its terminal. The $60 million building will sit on the west side of the airfield and is expected to open as early as spring 2028, though officials have also pointed to 2028 more broadly as the completion target.
Officials broke ground on the project Tuesday, September 29, 2026, according to the Austin American-Statesman, which reported that the concourse is funded entirely through airport revenues, including airline fees and leases rather than local tax dollars. The timing lines up with a social media exchange this week in which Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
told followers on X that “Austin is growing quickly” and that airport teams are “working diligently behind the scenes to keep pace with that growth,” pointing people toward ongoing updates on its Journey With AUS expansion program.
Concourse M will add six gates built for narrow-body aircraft, split between four contact gates and two walk-out gates, according to reporting from mySA. The facility measures roughly 37,500 square feet, per aviationpros.com, and will operate as a standalone building rather than connecting directly into the Barbara Jordan Terminal.
How Passengers Will Actually Get There
Rather than walking through a connecting tunnel, travelers heading to Concourse M will be picked up by shuttle bus from Gate 13, according to a report from futuretravelexperience.com describing the facility's design. The same report notes the concourse will include restrooms, a pet relief room, and outdoor canopies for passengers waiting to board.
The project's purpose is tactical as much as it is about growth: mySA reports that Concourse M is meant to serve as reliever gate space while the airport simultaneously builds the much larger Concourse B and remodels the existing Concourse A. Scheduling details for the project have varied across reports. The Statesman says construction is expected to wrap with an opening as early as spring 2028, while flyaustin.com describes construction beginning in 2026 with completion planned for 2028; an earlier mySA report had described a tentative start in late July 2026 with an anticipated completion by late October 2027.
A Terminal Built for Far Fewer Travelers
The new gates arrive as Austin-Bergstrom strains against capacity limits baked into its original design. The airport was built to handle 11 million annual passengers, later expanded to accommodate 15 million, but the Statesman reports it now routinely processes around 22 million travelers a year. That mismatch showed up again in 2025, when the airport logged 21,666,852 arriving and departing passengers, according to flyaustin.com — the third-busiest year in its history even though that total marked a 0.44% dip from 2024. Passenger traffic remained a key measure of the airport's activity that year.
Concourse M is one piece of the airport's much larger Journey With AUS program, which aviationpros.com describes as representing an estimated investment exceeding $5 billion. The Statesman reports that by the early 2030s, the airport plans to add 32 new gates altogether, anchored by a 26-gate Concourse B and a larger arrivals and departures hall.
More Construction Still to Come
Other projects already underway hint at the scale of the broader buildout. Flyaustin.com's construction updates page describes the Atrium Infill project, expected to finish in 2026, adding 84,500 gross square feet across three levels, including 30,000 square feet at the concourse level, along with 12 replaced gate boarding bridges and three new gates. Separately, aviationpros.com reports that a Maintenance Ramp Expansion will add six aircraft parking positions — four with boarding bridges and two for ground-loading operations — and is expected to be completed in 2027.
For now, Concourse M represents a relatively modest but immediate fix for a terminal that has outgrown its blueprints. As the airport works through the years-long sequence of concourse remodels, new taxiways, and a planned arrivals hall, officials have signaled that more visible construction, and more shuttle rides across the tarmac, are likely in Austin travelers' near future.
