Residents attended a formal meeting at the Suttons-Bingham Township Library Tuesday to hear plans for a $121 million renovation of Cherry Capital Airport (TVC) in Traverse City.
“Our locals are flying more than ever,” TVC CEO Kevin Klein said.
The master plan calls for a terminal expansion beginning in 2026 and finishing in 2028, with a goal of adding four new gates and a fifth option. Over the next year, TVC is studying a third concourse that could be added sometime in the 2030s.
Today, the airport serves seven gates in its current footprint.
Renovations would accommodate today’s demand while leaving questions about future demand. According to Klein, the airport will expand to nine gates with the construction, when the target needs are 16.
“When we look at this area, we want it to be larger to handle those bigger aircraft,” Klein said.
The entire airport administrative team was in attendance, along with Leelanau County Commissioners Ty Wessell and Alan Campbell.
As of 2024, TVC is the third-largest airport in the State of Michigan, behind Detroit Metro and Grand Rapids.
The airport was the seventh largest in the state over 20 years ago. TVC serves aircraft ranging from small 50-seat regional jets to 192-seat airliners.
According to TVC, the airport has an economic footprint of $1 billion. At peak times of year, the airport could be run-By Currently, each gate is used 10 times per day. Over the past two summers, TVC has accommodated 16 commercial airline aircraft simultaneously.
Cherry Capital had 800,000 passengers last year when it was built to serve only 250,000.
“We contributed over one billion dollars in economic activity in northern Michigan and the Michigan economy. We are pretty proud of that. As a community partner, we engage with all of our other partners, for Leelanau County, all the way over to Gaylord. We engage with what we call ‘Discover northern Michigan’ with all our tourism partners, community partners, and chambers,” Klein said.
Starting in 2020, TVC has had record year after record year.
Operations are already up 25% in 2025 for the same period in 2024 through May.
Jet Blue will be the seventh jetliner to contract through the airport, with its first flight from Boston scheduled for June 5.
TVC now has three airliners that go from Traverse City to Boston, one of only roughly 20 airports in the country that offers this extensive service to the northeast.
Roughly 7% of the local air traffic heads to Europe through several connectors, but the airport has the capacity to welcome nonstop flights.
The inner airport team has a staff of 32, while over 2,000 people work at the airport, contracted through other companies.
Other projects of the $121 million renovation project include a connector walkway, an apron improvement to accommodate aircraft access to the new concourse, a security checkpoint upgrade, exit lanes, new gate departures, a new concessions area, new restrooms, additional passenger amenities, and passenger boarding bridges.
The project will increase security space, going from three lanes to over 15 if needed.
Klein assured that the airport would not leave Traverse City to find more space.
“When you build an airport out of town, the town builds out to the airport. We’ve seen it in many major airports that have been redeveloping; the best one to look at is Denver,” he said. “We can go nonstop to Europe with the runway capacity that we have.”
Since 2020, the airport’s growth rate has hovered around 34%, with 3-4% growth forecasted per year.
From May to September, TVC sees 60% of travelers while 40% in the spring, winter, and fall.
The FAA traditionally funds airline terminals at about 50% through the airport improvement plan. TVC is working to find grants through the State of Michigan to cover more expenses. No taxpayer funds will be used in the process. TVC has backing through Grand Traverse County bonds announced in October 2024. Leelanau and other surrounding counties’ bonds will not be assessed.
Currently, the airport has seven airlines and 20 nonstop destinations.
January daily commercial flights in 2025 sat at 30, and the average daily summer commercial flights was 72 (2024). The estimated winter flights in 2034 will be 40, and the average summer flights in 2034 will be 80.
The airport moved to its present location in 1936 and, by the 1960s, had grown to four runways. In 2004, a new terminal with five gates opened.
