Norfolk airport debuts $25M international arrivals facility

Norfolk International Airport marked a major step toward improving its global travel operations on Wednesday, celebrating the opening of its new $25 million international arrivals facility, which is expected to begin processing arriving international passengers next week.

The 26,000-square-foot U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility is the first major project to be completed as part of a larger $1 billion effort to update critical airport infrastructure and add amenities. Construction on the CBP facility began in June 2024.

“This facility allows us to open up our gates and our doors to international visitors who will come directly through here and be processed in a very smooth and efficient manner,” said Norfolk Airport Authority CEO Mark Perryman at a ceremony celebrating the facility’s opening.

While the airport previously had a facility to process international flights, Perryman described it as small, “antiquated,” not functioning well or meeting modern standards.

He said the new, two-story facility is “the crown jewel of customs” and will allow passengers who land to quickly process with an officer, grab their bags at the baggage claim belt and leave. It was designed to process a 187-200-person aircraft in an hour, Perryman said.

The airport last month launched its first nonstop international route, with Breeze Airways operating a once-a-week service between Norfolk and Cancún, Mexico, with one-way fares starting at $139. The Cancún service marks Norfolk’s first regularly scheduled international flight since 2001.

But Perryman believes the opening of the new CBP facility will help attract more international flights to the airport, and said the airport is currently in discussions with several international carriers.

“This is one of those facilities, if you don’t have it, they’re not going to come,” Perryman said. “So this is a ‘build it and they will come’ facility. So we promised we were going to build it, and sure enough, Breeze, their first international flight in their airline’s history was out of here, out of Norfolk.”

In March or April, the airport expects to open three additional gates in Concourse A. Perryman also said that numerous new concessions will open at the airport later this year. This summer, the airport expects to begin construction on a rental car facility south of the departures terminal to consolidate all rental car companies into one location. The car rental facility is expected to open in 2027.

Smaller components of the $1 billion airport upgrade that have already been completed include an 80-space park-and-wait lot and moving walkways connecting the airport terminals.

Anthony Rondeau, the airport’s chief development officer, said the airport is still evaluating next steps for its plans to build a 165-room hotel. Last year, the airport authority canceled the contract with the development team due to an alleged contract violation. One of the options the airport is considering is building the hotel itself and bringing in a third-party operator to manage it.

Perryman said last year the cancellation would delay the hotel’s expected opening by about two years, with it likely opening around 2028. But Rondeau said it’s hard to tell when the opening will be until the airport finalizes plans.

The airport last year had 4.89 million passengers, up from 4.86 million in 2024 and a 23% increase from its pre-pandemic peak in 2019.