Pittsburgh plans industry's first on-airport SAF refinery

Travel Weekly

2 days ago

Pittsburgh Airport blazed a new trail in 2021, when it became the largest airport in the world to be fully powered by an on-site, clean energy microgrid.
Now, the airport is looking to cement its status as an innovator when it opens its new central terminal in October. The industry's first on-airport, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) refinery is also in the plans.
CEO Christina Cassotis said during an interview at the IATA Annual General Meeting in New Delhi last month that she hopes construction on the refinery will begin next year.
The microgrid enables Pittsburgh Airport to be energy self-sufficient, a status that looked especially significant this spring, when power grid failures shut down London Heathrow and, in a separate incident, caused widespread flight disruptions at airports in Portugal and Spain.
Cassotis said the credibility Pittsburgh has achieved from having the microgrid should help it line up partners and purchase agreements for the SAF facility. She first announced her goal of refining SAF within the airport's 3,000 remaining acres in 2023. But after a deal that was in the works didn't come to fruition last year, the airport has secured an agreement with New Jersey-based clean fuels developer Avina, whose production facility would refine alcohol into SAF using Swedish technology licensed to the Houston-based firm KBR.
The refinery would produce 120 million gallons of SAF annually, Cassotis said, 70 million of which could be used at Pittsburgh Airport, with the remainder to be piped off-site and then shipped via rivers to airports in the Northeast, Midwest and Canada.
"We're going to get to final investment in the next six months," Cassotis said. "Then it's just a question of when do you stick the shovel in the ground."
Inside the new terminal
In the meantime, the airport hopes to grab attention with the opening of its tech-forward $1.7 billion central terminal this fall.
For example, said airport chief information officer Deepak Nayyar, the airport built its own data platform that will be able to assimilate information from various airport systems to help with cross-departmental decision-making.
Using data and AI, Pittsburgh Airport hopes to deploy predictive technology to facilitate tasks as varied as managing parking capacity, advising flyers on when they should leave their home and proactively replacing airport machinery before it breaks.
For enhanced security, the new terminal will also have segmented operating networks, which Cassotis said is a rarity in the airport industry. So, for example, if the baggage claim network falls victim to a cyberattack, the airport will be able to localize and fix the problem while other airport functions continue operating.
As far as features that everyday airport users will notice, Cassotis pointed to the design's comprehensive focus on accessibility, which accounts not only for those with mobility impairments but for caregivers and the hearing- and vision-impaired.
"Everything from signage height and placement to making sure people who are colorblind can distinguish contrast," the CEO said.
Flyers will also notice the terminal's overall aesthetic, which architect Luis Vidal described in a 2022 Travel Weekly interview as being like "a pavilion surrounded by natural light, and by wood and by terraces."
Large, accessible outdoor spaces will be one of the terminal's most notable characteristics.
"It really is beautiful," Cassotis said. "It reflects Pittsburgh very nicely. It almost tells you about a community you don't know about, just through the design itself. And candidly, it makes sense. It's been very thoughtful, and I think it's going to change the way people feel when they travel."