- Yeah, Charlotte's always busy.

Douglas International Airport is busiest of all during the holidays and over the summer months when air travels at its peak.

But now, what you'll see here at CLT is an airport with less construction, more space, and a familiar face greeting you as you walk in the airport lobby.

- [Announcer] Three, two, one.

- [Jack] This has been a long time coming.

(audience applauding) - [Announcer] Long live, Queen Charlotte.

- And we're very, very excited to be able to put the queen back in her home.

- [Jeff] Jack Christine says the Queen first came to the airport in 1990.

Now she may be the last thing left from those old airport days.

- [Jack] That lobby was built in 1982, served 2.7 million passengers that year.

- [Jeff] Today, that number of local passengers is 12.7 million and growing.

So Charlotte's airport lobby is growing too.

- The customer experience is gonna be greatly enhanced by just the feel of the building, the layout of the facilities and the way that we can move around, move people around the building a lot more efficiently than what we could do with the original lobby that we had.

The key is growth for the airport means growth for the region, growth- - [Jeff] Christine walks us through the finally finished phases of growth at CLT that started back in 2019 where you can already see and feel the difference compared to the overcrowded older parts of the airport still waiting for their makeover.

- [Jack] Our construction is demand-driven, so as long as we have a demand, we're gonna continue to find projects that help ease that congestion.

- [Jeff] But the guy in charge of construction here at the airport says except for this still unfinished canopy outside the airport terminal, construction is the one thing you won't see as much of anymore.

- [Jack] And even the thick construction that you're gonna see from here on out will be behind construction walls.

It's not gonna be literally for the most part, you're gonna not gonna be in the middle of it where you know, for the last couple years you've been in the middle of it and so you're still gonna see some of those things but not as much.

- Floor pass please.

Thank you.

- [Jeff] For local passengers starting their flights here at CLT, the biggest change is transforming Charlotte's old and slow security checkpoints into something brand new.

- [Lorie] We are here to make it work for you, but also make sure we're not compromising security.

- [Jeff] TSA spokesperson, Lorie Dankers shows us the first of three high speed high tech checkpoints featuring multiple new automated security lines with loading space for five passengers at a time instead of just one.

- Also, once your items are in the bin, you push them forward.

- [Jeff] Each new line processing more than 180 passengers an hour, which is less than 20 seconds per person.

- All right, so this is the area where it will roll down.

Your bin will come, and you'll pull your bags out, your carry-on property out, and then you're good to go.

- We Are gonna be very, very busy, but this checkpoint is a game changer for us because it gives us a consolidated checkpoint with high capacity to help our passengers move through the system as quickly and as efficiently as we can get them there.

(gentle music) - [Jeff] Meanwhile, changes are also taking off out on the CLT airfield.

- After years of planning, we are ready to start the fourth parallel runway.

(plane engine roaring) It's a beautiful sound.

(audience applauding) - [Jeff] Airport CEO Haley Gentry says it's the sound of success.

Those takeoffs and landings drowning out the new runway's VIP groundbreaking ceremony.

- I'll pause for the sound of economic development.

(plane engine roaring) (audience applauding) Lay the groundwork because by every metric, this is one of the most successful airports in the world.

- [Jeff] Charlotte's Airport is also the number one economic driver in all of North Carolina creating $32 billion statewide in economic impact.

- This new parallel runway will allow for additional capacity, meaning that we can get more flights in the air, reduce congestion and all of us would be very proud of this, eliminate the long wait times for us to get to the gate.

That deserves an applause right there.

(audience applauding) - [Announcer] Five, four, three, two, one, go!

- [Jeff] CLT is connecting with non-flyers too through events like the annual runway 5K, sharing the airfield with hundreds of runners, all for a good cause.

- [Announcer] Once again, proceeds from today's event will help fund the airport Opportunity Scholarships with Central Piedmont Community College.

Thank you all for helping me to raise more than $250,000 throughout this event's history.

- [Jeff] But success at any airport is also measured by customer satisfaction.

Nobody likes those higher fares, but lots of flyers do like the rocking chairs and everybody who flies through busy Charlotte is just looking for a little space.

- I saw this and I thought, "Wow, you know, it's unusual to see really comfortable places."

- [Jeff] Comfortable enough for passengers like Susan Singh from Oklahoma to catch up on her reading.

You can even grab a nap or rock that tired baby on your lap.

- I heard it was overcrowded.

- Yeah, yeah, crowded - And to prepare ourselves so yeah.

- [Jeff] But CLT first timers, Madeline and Jerry Jones say they were not prepared for this.

Not here in Charlotte.

What do you think about this?

This space you're taking advantage of?

- Amazing.

- Yeah, this is really amazing.

- I love it.

It's comfortable.

I think this is necessary.

It's quiet.

- I think it's necessary.

- It gives you a time to, you know, decompress.

(gentle music) - One other change here at the Charlotte Airport we didn't show you is the new baggage area bigger and faster than the old baggage area.

Making sure that flying into CLT is just as convenient as flying out of CLT.