Nearly 100 regional leaders met on July 7, 2026, to mark the start of the expansion of the Eugene Airport, according to liftoffeug.com.
A funded first phase on Concourse A is under way. The $209 million project includes expanded gate seating, updated restrooms, a replaced jet bridge, a modernized baggage handling system, new TSA screening equipment and additional aircraft parking positions. It is being paid through a combination of federal grants, passenger facility charges, airport revenue and bond financing.
Essex General Construction is the general contractor.
A second phase— Concourse C — is a larger, as-yet unfunded piece, according to liftoffeug.com.
The estimated $240 million project would add eight new gates, including a charter-capable swing gate, along with terminal-wide upgrades including expanded ticketing counters and baggage claim areas.
The full two-phase expansion, estimated at $450 million, is projected to more than double the airport's regional economic footprint, growing annual economic activity from approximately $1.6 billion to an estimated $3.6 billion and supported regional jobs from roughly 10,000 to more than 23,000, according to liftoffeug.com.
Serving 1.8 million passengers in 2025, Eugene Airport has operated at or beyond its functional gate capacity since September 2021. Approximately 30 percent of the region's air travelers bypass EUG entirely, driving two hours instead to Portland International Airport, according to liftoffeug.com.
"The expansion here is not aspirational — it is long overdue," Eugene Airport Director Cathryn Stephens said. "Today is a milestone and a celebration of what is already being built, and it is also a new beginning."
Stephens noted that Eugene Airport serves Lane, Linn, Benton, Lincoln and Douglas counties, which is home to nearly one in six Oregonians that generates approximately one in nine dollars of the state's economy. Closing that gap, she and other speakers argued, is exactly what regional infrastructure investment is for, according to liftoffeug.com.
"The flight plan has been filed, and the gate is open for loading," Stephens said.
Oregon state Rep. Nancy Nathanson said the airport's expansion is projected to generate an estimated $56 million in additional annual state and local tax revenue, according to liftoffeug.com.
