Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport history

Bonanza Airlines began service by 1951 with a route to Las Vegas and Reno making several stops at smaller communities.

The $835,000 Terminal 1 (originally called the "West Wing") which also had the first control tower, opened in October 1952.

American began a nonstop DC-7 to New York (Idlewild) in the summer of 1959.

Circa 1960 - American Airlines DC-7B with South Mountain range in background

Terminal 2 was designed by the Phoenix architectural firms of Weaver & Drover and Lescher & Mahoney and opened in 1962.

Terminal 4 is named after former Arizona Senator and 1964 Presidential candidate Barry M. Goldwater.

Bonanza merged with two other airlines to form Air West, which became Hughes Airwest after Howard Hughes bought it in 1970.

Designed by DWL Architects + Planners, Inc., construction on terminal 3 began in January 1977.

After airline deregulation in 1978 former Hughes Airwest executive Ed Beauvais formed a plan for a new airline based in Phoenix.

Terminal 3 opened in October 1979, when the "East" and "West" names were dropped, since they were no longer the only two terminals.

Hughes Airwest was then merged into Republic Airlines in 1980 which continued the Phoenix hub operation until the mid-1980s.

America West Airlines was established in 1981 and had its main hub at Sky Harbor.

The first was completed in 1988.

In October 1989 ground was broken for Terminal 4, the largest terminal.

In 1994 the N4 International Concourse was opened, adding 10 gates and a sterile walkway to the S4 concourse. It opened on November 2, 1990 with four concourses: N2 and N3 on the north side and S3 and S4 on the south side.

Passenger traffic tops 15 million in 1991.

In late 1992 America West contracted with Mesa Airlines to create a new feeder network called America West Express which served many smaller communities in Arizona, California, Colorado, and New Mexico.

In 1994 the N4 International Concourse was opened, adding 10 gates and a sterile walkway to the S4 concourse.

Sky Harbor landed its first transatlantic flights in 1996 when British Airways inaugurated nonstop service to London.

In 1997 construction began on the 14-gate N1 concourse for America West Airlines.

On the south side of the terminal, construction began in 2002 on the eight-gate S2 concourse for Southwest Airlines. It was completed in June 1998 at a cost of $50 million, completing the expansion of the north side of the terminal.

On the south side of the terminal, construction began in 2002 on the eight-gate S2 concourse for Southwest Airlines.

• New concourse added to Terminal 4 in March 2005.

In November 2006, a Military and Veterans Hospitality Room, sponsored by the Phoenix Military and Veterans Commission, was opened in Terminal 2.

The second project, which cost $24 million and was designed by DWL Architects + Planners, Inc., was completed in 2007.

• The first segment of PHX Sky Train opens in April 2013, connecting the 44th Street station to the East Economy parking lot and Terminal 4.

In 2015, over 44 million passengers used the airport, with over 440,000 takeoffs and landings on its runways.

The eighth and final concourse for Terminal 4 began construction in May 2019.