San Francisco International Airport has announced plans to expand and improve the two security screening checkpoints in the Mayor Edwin M Lee International Departures Hall.
The work will involve adding lane, queuing space, and recompose areas. When completed, the expanded checkpoints will be able to accommodate 33% more screening lanes, while offering travelers a more relaxing, easier-to-navigate security experience, according to the airport.
In the past five years, international passenger traffic at San Francisco has grown by 46%. The Mayor Edwin M Lee International Departures Hall is served by two security checkpoints; one for Gates A1 – A15, the other for Gates G1 – G14. The latter includes a post-security connecting walkway to Terminal 3. In 2019, these two checkpoints screened over 7.5 million travelers.
Later this month, travelers can expect to see construction walls being installed in front of the current security checkpoints in the departures hall. Information booths and SFO Museum exhibits in the area will be relocated to create increased pre-security queuing. This, in turn, will allow for a larger recompose area post-security at each location, featuring new furniture and artwork commissioned through the San Francisco Art Commission. Combined with a lateral expansion, this project will roughly double the square footage of each security checkpoint.
When completed in February 2021, the new checkpoints will each feature 10 security screening lanes. Currently, the security checkpoint for Gates A1 – A15 has eight lanes, while the checkpoint for Gates G1 – G14 has seven. Although traditional lanes will be installed at the outset, the project will enable easy conversion at a later date to Automated Screening Lanes (ASLs), which are already being deployed in the airport’s Harvey Milk Terminal 1 and in Terminal 3.
The project to expand the security checkpoints is part of a larger US$152m program to upgrade the International Terminal facility, which includes improvements to boarding gate hold rooms and new furnishings.
