Eugene to seek up to $100 million from Legislature for airport expansion

The city of Eugene plans to request up to $100 million from the Legislature next year to help fund a planned Eugene Airport expansion.

The first phase of the expansion — adding 7,000 square feet of seating space to the Concourse A gates, remodeling restrooms and upgrading HVAC systems — is already funded and underway. But the bigger, more expensive second phase, which includes the construction of a third, eight-gate concourse, additional ticketing and airline office areas and an expanded baggage claim, needs funding.

Eugene plans to pursue a funding strategy anchored by state lottery-backed bonds and supplemented by additional public, private and donor-based support to pay for the $240 million second phase. The city estimates both phases to total about $450 million. 

The city will ask lawmakers to allocate $80 million to $100 million in the upcoming legislative session to support the expansion. City officials are working with state Rep. Nancy Nathanson, state Sen. James Manning and U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle to “potentially carry this request forward,” Airport Director Cathryn Stephens told the Eugene City Council on Monday, Oct. 12.

“The state request is the first move, and it positions us for everything that follows,” Stephens said.

The airport hired consulting firms to conduct a feasibility study from November 2025 to July 2026, which involved interviews with more than 100 leaders across the five Oregon counties that use the airport. The study concluded that the region strongly supports the expansion on an “accelerated timeline.” 

The number of Eugene Airport passengers has more than doubled between 2011 and 2025, growing from about 800,000 to 1.8 million annually, and flights tend to run at 80 to 82% full. The terminal reached capacity — with all ticket counters, gates and overnight aircraft parking spaces under “full utilization,” as described in a 2022 study — in September 2021. 

Building a new concourse could allow for more nonstop flights, including to Hawaii and East Coast hubs like Atlanta, Orlando and Boston, and reduce the number of regional travelers who drive to Portland to fly, Stephens said last year.

“If we were to build the eight gates now, they would be full immediately because there is that much demand from our airline partners,” Stephens said. 

But the project will face fierce competition for funding in Salem. 

Oregon is projected to have just under $400 million in lottery-bond capacity for the 2027-29 biennium, far short of the roughly $2 billion in local government requests each biennium. The state uses a portion of the nearly $1 billion in Oregon Lottery revenue it collects each year to repay investors who purchase bonds from the Oregon State Treasury. Those investments, in turn, fund a wide range of public improvement projects around the state. 

The city is working to further drum up support for the legislative funding request with testimony, endorsements and coordinated outreach to a variety of local partners, Stephens said. The legislative session begins Jan. 12. 

The airport has about $85 million in borrowing capacity backed by passenger fees but currently plans to use that borrowing for Phase 1. Securing money from the state for those projects could free up that borrowing capacity for Phase 2. 

Because lottery bonds and airport revenue bonds cannot solely finance the entire expansion, the study recommends a combination of federal grants, tourism-related tax revenue from local governments, public-private partnerships like sponsorship deals and local voter-approved bonds to finance the full cost.

“We continue exploring the full range of funding avenues the study identified,” Stephens said.

Meanwhile, Eugene is once again revisiting the possibility of hotel development near the airport.

Stephens said officials are “refreshing” a previous feasibility study in hopes of attracting developer interest. That has been a continual challenge for the city because federal aviation law governs the land set aside for hotel development, capping land leases at 50 years.

“If we were to find a hotel partner that wanted to build now, we would need to come back and explore a 50-year lease so that they would be convinced that their return on investment would be good enough,” Stephens said. 

She also said that the Lane Transit District is “actively looking” at expanding bus service to the airport.