Salt Lake City airport remains in the black, but has it hit a growth cap?

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Salt Lake City airport anticipates heavy passenger numbers in the next fiscal year but warns growth could slow down.
Officials project increased expenses and revenue, possibly adding $185 million to its reserves in the 2026 fiscal year.
Economic uncertainties could impact future airport operations and growth.

SALT LAKE CITY — Over 28 million passengers flew in or out of Utah's largest airport last year, marking yet another record and helping anchor what remains on track to be another good fiscal year.

While it may very well break another passenger-volume record in 2025, Salt Lake City International Airport operators warn that year-over-year growth could level off amid growing uncertainty in the economy and travel industry.

"Normally, we have really good growth, 3% to 4% growth. It's really flat this coming year, and I think that's what we're kind of seeing with what's going on in the economy," said Brian Butler, the airport's chief financial officer, as he presented the airport's proposed budget to Salt Lake City leaders on Tuesday.

Despite this, he and airport director Bill Wyatt offered a generally optimistic overview of airport finances as the beginning of the end of the new airport facility is in sight.

Airport budget changes

The 2025 fiscal year ends on June 30, and the airport is projected to end the year with expenses below last year's budget and revenue above expectations, per data provided to the Salt Lake City Council. It remains on course to deliver nearly $140 million back to the airport's reserve accounts at the end of this fiscal year, about $60 million more than initially planned because some of the money hasn't gone into construction projects yet, Butler said.

The airport is projecting an 11% increase in operating expenses from 2025, as costs ranging from utilities to salaries/benefits rise.

It's also projecting a 15% spike in operating revenue, thanks largely to new gates opening during the 2026 fiscal year, leading to increased landing fees and terminal rent collections. Other items, like money collected from a restructured car rental agreement, are expected to help bring in more money. No changes in parking fees are proposed for the next fiscal year.

If everything goes according to plan, this could help the airport add another $185 million to its reserves.

Wyatt says that's important because debt service is increasing "pretty dramatically" as construction wraps up. The airport also expects to spend nearly $170 million in interest expenses during the next fiscal year, following a projected $167.1 million in 2025, as it pays off the cost of previous construction that began in 2014.

Construction isn't finished, either. Officials plan to seek one last bond later this year to help complete all phases of the new airport by the end of 2026 while setting it up for future growth, potentially in the next decade. Some equipment is also being replaced, showcasing how airport construction is never fully over.

Officials also prefer to set aside enough money to operate at least a year's worth of expenses in case of emergency, Butler added.

Dealing with new uncertainty

The extra money is also important because a good portion of Tuesday's meeting shifted toward growing economic turbulence that could factor into future finances.

Salt Lake City International Airport is tentatively projecting that a little over 14.1 million passengers will board from Salt Lake City in the upcoming fiscal year, which would be less than 0.5% higher than what it projects for the current one. That's based on projections given by airlines operating out of the facility, which also shape budget projections

"It's a really unique year in that there's a lot of disruptions — a lot of uncertainty, especially with travel," Butler said, pointing to theories that visitation from outside countries could dip amid trade war speculation.

This graph shows past and projected flights out of Salt Lake City International Airport. Airport officials project growth to slow down heading into 2026. (Photo: Salt Lake City International Airport)

Canadian low-fare provider WestJet is still projecting interest in its new five-day-a-week service linking Utah's capital to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, launching next month, he added. But Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, a provider that accounts for about 70% of the airport's traffic, told CNBC last week that he was concerned about lagging airline bookings amid tariffs proposed by President Donald Trump.

"In the last six weeks, we've seen a corresponding reduction in broad consumer confidence and corporate confidence," he told the outlet.

That's just one of the concerns airport leaders are tracking, though. Gov. Spencer Cox cautioned that there is "certainly a chance of a recession" when talking about the economy earlier on Tuesday, which could also impact airport business.

The airport suffered its lowest traffic numbers in recent history during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it also received "substantial" federal support during that time, Wyatt said. Airport officials say they aimed to keep expenses low this year amid worries from airlines, trimming a request for new staff hires from 20 to 10 in the next year.

A push to privatize airport security — a measure led by Utah Sen. Mike Lee — likely won't have a "direct financial impact" on the airport, but could still "have a significant impact on the airport operations," Wyatt added, when asked about it.

"So we're obviously keeping an eye on that very closely," he said.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.