Timeline: How San Diego went from a single field to a major airport with new terminal

When San Diego International Airport’s Terminal 1 opened in March 1967 it was praised in the pages of the San Diego Union for its “functional beauty” and convenience.

The view of Terminal 1, an example of brutalist architecture popular at the time, shifted over the decades to being outdated and inferior compared to more modern airports. Yet its simplistic design was credited over the years for making improvements and additions easy.

How the public views Terminal 1 will change in late September when the first phase of its remodel opens. The $3.8 billion modernization effort has been one of the most anticipated public works projects in San Diego in decades.

When it opened, Terminal 1 was just called “the new terminal” and, in many ways, the history of Terminal 1 is simply the history of the airport.

Here are a few key dates in the history of Terminal 1:

August 1928: San Diego Municipal Airport-Lindbergh Field was founded.

July 1932: A small terminal for Lindbergh Field is opened on Pacific Highway. It was designed in a Spanish Colonial style with a red tile roof and arches. It is improved on slightly over the decades, and almost completely replaced in 1952, but it wasn’t much to write home about. “San Diego has the worst airport terminal of any major city in the U.S.,” editorialized the San Diego Union a few years before the plans for a new terminal are openly discussed.

February 1964: Preliminary plans for a new terminal are reviewed as pressure to modernize the airport heats up. A bond measure to pay for the changes is discussed, along with vigorous debate about moving the airport somewhere else in San Diego County. The cost of the new terminal building, a new parking lot and traffic interchanges was estimated to be around $5 million.

August 1964: Airport officials gear up for a November election that will see a bond voted on to pay for a new terminal and improvements, which saw its cost estimate increase slightly. The bond was for $5.41 million to construct a new terminal and traffic interchange on Harbor Drive. A Port District economic study said improvements would net $11.5 million in the first 10 years after completion.

November 1964: Voters approve of a bond measure to build a new terminal. Airport officials vow to start construction as soon as possible. It wasn’t a countywide vote, with only cities in the Unified Port District voting: San Diego, National City, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach and Coronado. It passed with roughly 80% approval, and airport officials claimed it was “one of the greatest majorities ever given” for a bond vote.

September 1965: Initial work on the new terminal starts with contractors clearing earth at the site to make way for the site.

November 1965: A ground-breaking ceremony is held at the airport. “The terminal building to be erected here will give us a new sense of pride in our airfield,” said Miles Bowler, chairman of the port commission at the time.

August 1966: Even as construction is ongoing, San Diego Port officials begin warning that demand is so high for the airport that the new terminal will need to be expanded by 1970.

February 1967: The San Diego Union is given a tour of the new terminal. Reporter Jim McVicar described the 1,500 parking spots (up from 326 at the old airport), the automatic entrance doors, two cocktail lounges and a restaurant, the 270 seats (up from at 80) and a place for passengers to leave their luggage for brief periods.

A dedication ceremony is held with Gov. Ronald Reagan giving the main speech. As fate would have it, the first cargo shipment to the new terminal occurred when the future U.S. president was touring: a pair of capybaras for the San Diego Zoo. “What is a capybara?” Reagan was recorded as saying.

March 1967: Terminal 1 opens to great fanfare with 125 flights on the first day. San Diego Union reporter Joe Stone records for posterity that the first person to buy a plane ticket was a Navy sailor (and the first to use a new airport ashtray, he wrote). Two labor unions protested outside, Bartenders Local 500 and Cooks and Waitresses Union Local 402, because the new airport restaurant didn’t have a contract. In solidarity, union taxi drivers didn’t deliver passengers to the airport and the unionized San Diego Transit System drivers also refused to drive to the new airport. Cabs and buses resumed operation at 5:30 p.m. when the protest ended. It was a big news day: Construction on the San Diego-Coronado Bridge started the same day the new terminal opened to the public.

June 1975: Debate over a multimillion dollar expansion at the airport to meet air travel needs rages. The Port District proposed a $13 million project. At the time, the airport was handling more than 4 million passengers a year, but airport officials argued that would be up to 8 million in the next decade. Opponents argue the airport should be moved to somewhere else in San Diego County.

July 1979: Terminal 2 opens, which at the time was mostly referred to as “the new west terminal.” The $16 million project received much of its funding from federal sources, like the U.S. Department of Transportation. A second story is also added to Terminal 1, then called the east terminal, along with other improvements in the following years.

September 1997: The airport changes the name of the east and west terminals to Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.

January 2003: Airport officials cement the official name as “San Diego International Airport” on its FAA operating certificate, doing away with references to Lindberg Field. The airport could technically be called the San Diego International Airport when it received federal approval for international flights in 1934. However, the name “Lindbergh Field” continued to be used by most locals. Even in 1967 when the new terminal opened, the airport manager was complaining in the pages of the San Diego Union that people should not call it Lindbergh Field.

August 2013: The airport hosts a grand opening for the $1 billion modernization of Terminal 2. Travelers praise its new restaurants, shops and extra space.

August 2016: A commuter terminal, for flights between Los Angeles and San Diego, is closed after 19 years in operation. Focus shifts to modernizing Terminal 1. The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority was reviewing four concepts.

January 2020: The airport authority approves a $3 billion plan to replace Terminal 1 with a 30-gate facility and modern upgrades. Airport officials are hopeful the new terminal could open by 2024. The plan receives criticism for lack of a San Diego Trolley extension. Other San Diego agencies write formal letters to criticize what they say is the Airport Authority’s seeming unwillingness to consider a trolley extension, automated people mover or skyway. The debate continues to this day, with the airport leaving a 1.61-acre spot vacant across from Terminal 1 in case a plan for a transit solution is ever agreed on.

November 2021: Construction begins on Terminal 1. Early work mainly involved demolition, including the removal of old vacant cargo buildings and the facilities maintenance department complex.

August 2024: The first part of the Terminal 1 opens to the public: a new parking garage called the T1 Parking Plaza, which was estimated to cost $325 million. Modern elements are added, including license plate readers that scan the back of your car when you enter, electronic arrows to alert drivers to open spots, express lanes on the outside of the garage so you don’t have go in circles to find a spot or leave, a rainwater collection system, pillars on the outside that make the structure look kind of like a wave and landscaping around the structure with olive trees.

September 2025: The new Terminal 1 is set to open to the public.