T.J. “Jerry” Orr is a fixture at Charlotte Douglas International (CLT). Orr joined the airport in 1975 as airport engineer, became assistant airport manager for the city of Charlotte in 1980 and was appointed airport director in 1989. During Orr’s 23-year tenure as aviation director, CLT has grown to become the nation’s 11th-busiest airport in number of passengers and sixth-busiest in number of operations.
CLT’s passenger numbers exceeded 39 million in 2011, a record for the airport. In an industry beset by contracting flights and only modest passenger growth, CLT continues to thrive, prompting ongoing capital improvements. Current projects at CLT include construction of a $120M parking and rental car facility and a $90M intermodal facility. Plans include construction of an international concourse and the possible addition of another runway. ARN’s Carol Ward spoke recently with Orr about the latest developments at CLT.
ARN: I know one of your latest projects is the intermodal facility. Can you tell me a bit about it?
Orr: We passed a milestone recently. We had the groundbreaking and executed a new lease with Norfolk Southern, so their contractor is on site and going like crazy. It’s an intermodal yard, for truck and rail transfer containers. It’s scheduled to be completed in late 2013. What the intermodal yard will do is attract freight from the four major East Coast [shipping regions], as well as a lot of domestic freight, and it will create an environment that is very friendly for logistics and the movement of goods. We think it will inspire a lot of development, and the movement of goods and the movement of people are very similar.
ARN: Is there a passenger component to the intermodal facility?
Orr: Not until they start traveling in containers. At least they’d have a little more legroom.
ARN: Can you tell me about the CLT 2015 capital project?
Orr: We’re building a seven-story parking garage in front of the terminal, the bottom three levels of which will be rent-a-car ready return. The new deck will also permit us to expand the roadways in front of the terminal, double the number of lanes, and then expand the ticket and the bag-claim level of the terminal by about 90 feet.
Read the entire interview in ARN’s upcoming August issue. Click Here to subscribe!
