Syracuse Hancock airport enters 2026 with $86 million in projects and two new airlines

By Sarah Chen, Staff Reporter

Syracuse Hancock International Airport opens the 2026 construction season with two new airlines on the jetway, a $60 million rental car complex taking shape off Col. Eileen Collins Boulevard, and a fresh $20 million state check earmarked for the north concourse. Taken together, the projects reset the economic math of a facility that already moved 3,004,747 passengers in 2024 and funneled roughly $1.2 billion into the regional economy.

A second straight record year, and a ceiling that keeps rising

The 2024 total of 3,004,747 passengers marked a 5 percent jump over 2023’s 2,856,038 travelers and delivered the busiest year in the airport’s 75 year history, according to the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority. The record held even after Southwest Airlines shut down its SYR operation in early August 2024, pulling out roughly 12 percent of the airport’s seat capacity on its way out the door. Enplanements, the one way boarding count, climbed from 840,994 in 2021 to nearly 1.5 million in 2024, a 78 percent recovery arc in three years.

Eight airlines now serve Syracuse: Allegiant, American, Breeze, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Sun Country, and United. The current nonstop map covers 29 destinations. American Airlines is the schedule leader with roughly 114 weekly departures, and the Chicago O’Hare route alone averages 54 flights per week, or 17 percent of the entire SYR departure board. July 2024 stood out as the single busiest month on record, with 149,680 passengers moving through the terminal. March 2024 landed as the fifth busiest month in airport history.

Executive Director H. Jason Terreri, who also chairs the Airports Council International North America U.S. Policy Council, said the 2024 number points to durable underlying demand rather than a pandemic rebound spike. Terreri, a holder of the IAP, A.A.E., and ACE industry credentials, was appointed in April 2019 after the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority board voted unanimously on his selection from a national candidate pool. He arrived from Airports Worldwide Inc. in Sanford, Florida, with prior stops as Assistant Director of Airports for Horry County, South Carolina, and as an Airport Operations Supervisor at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International.

JetBlue returns to Fort Lauderdale

JetBlue resumes year round nonstop service between Syracuse and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on March 5, 2026. The carrier will operate the route five days a week (Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) with a 12:25 p.m. departure from SYR arriving at FLL at 3:35 p.m. Promotional one way fares opened at $59 when tickets went on sale December 3, 2025. JetBlue first entered the Syracuse market in 2001 and previously flew the SYR to FLL pairing as a seasonal winter product in 2016. The March 2026 relaunch puts the route on the schedule year round for the first time.

The route reconnects Syracuse to JetBlue’s South Florida focus city, which serves as an onward gateway to the Caribbean including San Juan, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. JetBlue operates the route on Airbus A320 aircraft configured for 162 seats in a single class layout.

Breeze Airways expands to two western destinations

Breeze Airways, the Cottonwood Heights, Utah based low fare carrier founded by serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman, begins twice weekly year round nonstop service from SYR to Charleston International Airport (CHS) and Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) on June 10. Breeze operates Airbus A220-300 aircraft with 126 seats including 36 First Class, 10 extra legroom, and 80 standard economy seats. The SYR to LAS segment clocks 2,113 miles, the longest nonstop on the Syracuse departure board.

The Charleston and Las Vegas adds give Breeze four Syracuse routes in total. Neeleman, who previously founded Morris Air, WestJet, JetBlue, and Azul Brazilian Airlines, started Breeze in 2018 under the working name Moxy before rebranding in 2020. The airline flew its first paying passengers on May 27, 2021, between Tampa and Charleston. Neeleman has publicly pitched Breeze as a point to point carrier that moves travelers “twice as fast for about half the price” by avoiding legacy hub stops.

Delta scales up in Atlanta and Minneapolis

Delta Air Lines adds a fourth daily nonstop between Syracuse and its Atlanta hub beginning June 7, 2026, operating the new midday frequency on Airbus A321 equipment. The schedule has the southbound departing ATL around noon and arriving SYR at 2:15 p.m., with the return leaving Syracuse at 3:15 p.m. and landing in Atlanta shortly after 5:45 p.m. On the Minneapolis route, Delta upgauges from the 76 seat CRJ900 regional jet to the Airbus A319, lifting capacity roughly 75 percent per flight. Airport officials describe Atlanta as the single most economically important connection for Central New York.

The $60 million rental car consolidation

Construction on the Consolidated Rental Car Facility, commonly called a ConRAC, began March 16, 2026, following parking reconfiguration and traffic pattern changes that took effect February 20. The $60 million project folds the airport’s individual rental car counters and service areas into a single building, frees up landside real estate, and adds 450 covered public parking spaces inside the existing garage once complete. The ConRAC is the largest capital project the airport has tackled since the $62 million terminal modernization of the mid 2010s. The B Loop travel lane at the front of the terminal closed to passenger pickup traffic as part of the same construction package, pushing greeters to the short term garage.

$20 million toward Terminal B and Customs

Governor Kathy Hochul announced a $20 million award through the state’s Airport Economic Development and Revitalization Competition that funds two parallel items at SYR. The first is enhancement and expansion of the north concourse (Terminal B), which already received a $28.4 million buildout completed in July 2025 that added more than 4,000 square feet, new seating zones, and food and beverage options. The second is upgrades to the Customs and Border Protection Federal Inspection Station on the second floor near Gate 15, work that preserves the airport’s international designation for both passengers and cargo. The Syracuse award was part of a $230 million round delivered to nine upstate airports, a program first announced by the Governor’s office in 2022.

Terminal B handles roughly 40 percent of annual passenger traffic and anchors the concourse serving Delta, JetBlue, and Breeze.

The Micron factor, sitting one exit away

Micron Technology broke ground in January 2026 on its $100 billion semiconductor memory complex in the town of Clay, about 7 miles from the airport. Onondaga County projects the fab will generate up to 50,000 direct and indirect jobs over 20 years. Airport forecasts expect Micron related business traffic to register in the 2026 numbers and accelerate as the first production phase comes online. The ConRAC, baggage system upgrade, and Delta capacity adds read cleanly as pre positioning for that demand wave.

Cargo, military tenants, and the working airfield

SYR operates a 22.5 acre dedicated cargo apron anchored by a 100,000 square foot cargo building on Air Cargo Road, managed by Aeroterm Inc. FedEx, UPS, and Wiggins Airways share the ramp, and the facility handled 31,460 tons of freight in 2025. The upcoming cargo development and centralized baggage handling system are paired in the 2026 plan, and the CBP upgrade tied to the $20 million award keeps the airport licensed for international cargo moves alongside passenger operations. The authority counts more than 6,100 jobs as attributable to airport operations in 2025, spanning airlines, TSA, ground services, retail, and tenant businesses.

The civilian terminal shares the airfield with Hancock Field Air National Guard Base, home to the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Attack Wing, which flies the MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft out of 6001 East Molloy Road in Mattydale. An Air Force crash fire department stationed on base provides aircraft rescue and firefighting, structural fire and rescue, and emergency services to both the Guard side and the commercial side. The airport’s single main runway, 10/28, stretches 9,003 feet by 150 feet wide, adequate for the widebody diversions SYR has handled in weather emergencies over the past decade.

How SYR stacks up in upstate

With the 3 million passenger 2024 figure, Syracuse ranks second along the Thruway corridor behind Buffalo Niagara International, which cleared 5 million travelers in 2024. SYR leapfrogged Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International (roughly 2.4 million in 2024) for the first time in recent memory, a shift that predates any Micron contribution and that holds even after the Southwest Airlines departure trimmed SYR seat capacity.

The Syracuse Regional Airport Authority, established August 17, 2011, is an eleven member public benefit corporation chaired by Jo Anne Chiarenza Gagliano with William Fisher serving as vice chair. Board members named in the most recent public roster include Latoya Allen, Dr. Shiu-Kai Chin, Dr. Donna DeSiato, Tom Fernandez, Michael Frame, Kenneth Kinsey, Michael Lazar, Nick Paro, and Robert Simpson. Gagliano, a Syracuse native, also serves as vice chair of the Downtown Committee of Syracuse and as a member of the Fayetteville Village Planning Board. The authority took full operational control from the City of Syracuse on March 1, 2014, though the city still owns the land.

A 75 year lineage, from Amboy to international status

The terminal on Col. Eileen Collins Boulevard is the third Syracuse airport of the post war era. A predecessor field at Amboy, in Camillus, handled commercial traffic before closing in the late 1940s. Clarence E. Hancock Airport opened to the public on September 17, 1949, named for the Republican congressman who represented the 36th district covering Syracuse and Onondaga County from 1927 to 1946. The International Civil Aviation Organization awarded international airport status in 1970, the year the name changed to Syracuse Hancock International Airport. Commercial service at SYR now runs through a 2025 rebuilt north concourse, a 2026 rental car complex site, and a 2026 Delta schedule that leans on mainline Airbus narrowbodies rather than the regional jets of a decade ago.

What to watch next

The next data points land in June 2026 when the Federal Aviation Administration publishes preliminary calendar year 2025 enplanement data and again in late August when final 2025 figures post. The ConRAC is scheduled to remain under construction through 2026, and the first round of 2026 monthly activity reports will show whether the JetBlue relaunch and Delta capacity add are translating to measurable traffic gains at the SYR gate count.

Sarah Chen covers business and the regional economy for CNY Signal. Contact tips: [email protected].