Dallas Love Field is about to start a $2.5 billion rebuild, and the first major step on the city's own timeline doesn't add anything. It removes Garage A, the structure right across from the terminal. That's where many Bluffview households park when they have an early Southwest flight and no patience for a shuttle.
In a WFAA report syndicated on Yahoo, Aviation Director Patrick Carreno told the City Council's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that, on a conservative timeline, construction would begin with the demolition of Garage A at the end of 2027. The replacement garage comes later. For a neighborhood that treats Love Field as its home airport, that order matters more than the finished renderings.
The Gates Stay the Same, So the Terminal Has to Get Bigger
The rebuild starts with Garage A because of a limit Love Field can't change. The airport is held to 20 gates under an agreement reached about 20 years ago among Love Field, DFW International, American Airlines and the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, Spectrum News reported on Oct. 30. The same report put last year's traffic at about 17 million passengers, with officials expecting 24 million within the next decade.
Roughly 40 percent more travelers moving through the same 20 gates means everything around the gates has to grow. That includes ticketing, security, baggage, holdrooms and the curb. At the Oct. 29 event, NBC 5 reported that Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan said the airline is focused on making its 18 gates work as well as possible.
That growth needs room next to the existing building, and Garage A sits in that space. The city's February 2026 council briefing says Garage A's demolition will happen in the first phase so construction of the new terminal headhouse can start right away, which the city says shortens the overall disruption. The plan does build more parking. The new garage just has to follow the new terminal, so parking near the terminal shrinks first.
The Order of Work, as Currently Planned
The airport's December 2025 Master Plan implementation chapter puts that sequence on a quarter-by-quarter chart. The plan calls its phasing conceptual and says it doesn't represent definitive project phasing, so the dates below are targets.
Step | Planned timing | What it means for a traveler |
|---|---|---|
Support facilities: maintenance, receiving and distribution center, general use building | Construction 2027–2028, with the general use building's second phase finishing in 2029 | Mostly behind the scenes |
Garage A demolition | About six months, starting around the end of 2027 | The closest garage goes away |
Curbside and terminal roadways | Construction 2027–2030 | Changes to drop-off and pickup |
Garage D | Opens Q2 2030 | New parking arrives |
New terminal headhouse | Opens Q1 2031 | New ticketing, security and baggage claim |
Concourse expansion | Opens Q2 2032 | More holdroom space at the gates |
Between the end of 2027 and mid-2030, Love Field is scheduled to have no Garage A and no Garage D. That's about two and a half years, including at least two Thanksgiving and Christmas travel seasons, when travelers have the least parking next to the terminal.
The airport has said it won't wait for one grand opening and will open each project when it's done, according to Spectrum News. On the master plan's chart, Garage D opens about nine months before the new headhouse, and the expanded concourse follows more than a year after that.
Where 2,922 Cars Go
The February briefing includes the airport's parking numbers, and they explain what that gap will feel like.
- Today: Garage A has 2,922 spaces, Garage B 3,563, Garage C 3,742 and valet 550, for 10,777 in total.
- When the program is finished: Garage A has zero, Garage B 4,050, Garage C 3,742, the new Garage D 5,000 and valet 550, for 13,292 in total.
So the finished airport has about 2,500 more spaces than it does now. In between, it loses more than a quarter of its current capacity. The city's briefing says current and near-term demand can be handled in Garages B and C once Garage A is gone.
The master plan also has a fallback for busy weeks. The site now planned for a future consolidated rental car center could serve early on as a temporary surface lot for overflow parking, which would allow Garage A to come down early. That lot would operate only during peak travel periods, and the plan says it would stop taking overflow once Garage D opens.
Over the longer term, the plan also calls for a 2,000-space remote parking facility on airport property. The plan says it won't be within walking distance of the terminal, and it names the current rental car area at the north corner of Herb Kelleher Way and Tom Braniff Lane as one possible location. The master plan schedules that facility for 2032 to 2033. For anyone who lives a short drive from the terminal, close-in parking is the convenience at stake, and it's the convenience the plan removes first.
The Drive In Changes Too
The garage is only part of the redesign. The master plan's curbside project calls for a two-level roadway system for the new headhouse, with separate lanes for private cars, commercial drop-off and bypass traffic. It adds new entrances and exits for Garages C and D, a grade-separated garage exit onto Cedar Springs Road, and a ground transportation center that brings shuttles, taxis and rideshare together in one place.
WFAA's report describes the layout this way: a new roadway would run perpendicular to the current one, with ticketing and security set directly behind curbside check-in. Today, travelers walk from drop-off toward ticketing and security. "We'd like to tighten this up," Carreno said of the timeline, according to the same report.
The flyover bridges in the master plan are less settled. They would connect the northeast-bound lanes of West Mockingbird Lane to Cedar Springs Road and Herb Kelleher Way. The plan says that concept doesn't obligate the City of Dallas to build it, and that more work was underway to find other safe options for the airport entrance. In June 2026, the council amended a $750,000 federal grant agreement for planning an alternate airport entrance at the Mockingbird Lane and Herb Kelleher Way intersection. That grant is for planning. The entrance route most Bluffview drivers use doesn't have a final design yet.
What Is Still Ahead of a Vote
The schedule above is a plan, and the city hasn't adopted it yet. NBC 5 reported that the Dallas City Council could consider approving it in the first part of 2027, starting a series of changes expected to run through 2033. The airport's LEAP program page says major improvements will continue through 2032. The city's June 15, 2026 committee presentation put the cost at $2,543,740,113. It called the schedule an estimate that would be revised once design packages and delivery methods are set.
On funding, the airport says LEAP is paid for with airport revenues and program-specific financing, not local property taxes. In WFAA's report, Carreno said the program is funded mainly by general airport revenue bonds. Council member Cara Mendelsohn told the committee to keep Love Field's long-standing convenience at the front of every decision.
This Thanksgiving, Garage A Is Still There
For holiday 2026 trips, the airport is still the one you know. Garage A is standing, and its demolition isn't scheduled until around the end of 2027. The airport's garage and valet page lists these daily rates:
- Garage A: $24, with the first 30 minutes free
- Garage B: $21 covered or $18 on the uncovered roof, with the first 30 minutes free
- Garage C: $21 covered, $20 on the uncovered roof, $21 on the Mavericks level and $30 on the premium level, with free 59-minute parking on specified levels
- Contactless valet: $35
The airport says all parking is first-come, first-served and no advance reservation is required. The airport's Garages A and B repair page lists Levels 3 and 4 of Garage A as temporarily closed for repairs. Levels 1 and 2 of Garage A and every level of Garages B and C are listed as open. With half of Garage A listed as closed, a full day before Thanksgiving could give an early sense of what parking will be like once the whole garage is gone.
When LEAP construction does start, the airport says to expect detours near the terminal, shifted pickup and drop-off at the curb, and temporary parking changes. It recommends arriving a little earlier during active phases. The airport held a community meeting at the Frontiers of Flight Museum on August 4, 2026, and says invitations to future meetings go out through its LEAP update signup, along with milestone and roadway notices. Signing up is the most direct way to hear when the Garage A date firms up.
Some of the airport's work along its edges is already finished. Love Field's Lemmon Avenue streetscape added sidewalks, bike paths, lighting, signals, wayfinding and pocket parks, and the airport says more than 200 trees were planted along the corridor.
At The Ryan Group, we follow projects like LEAP closely because Bluffview life is tied to the airport next door, from the drive to the terminal to the noise and traffic on surrounding streets. If you'd like to talk through how Love Field's construction years could affect your plans for your home, schedule a free consultation and we'll walk through the timeline with you.
