American Airlines Boston Logan International Airport Colocation

Boston, Massachusetts

After the recent acquisition of US Airways, American Airlines’ combined airport operations facilities (everything behind-the-scenes) at Logan International Airport (BOS) in Boston were left disconnected, operating on completely different ends of the terminal, and Terminal B was in dire need of rehabilitation. AA turned to Mancini based on our successful work designing their Flagship Lounge at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. With the Terminal B Optimization Project underway, we capitalized on the opportunity during the renovation to co-locate and reconnect airport operations from the acquired facilities from former US Airways with American existing facilities to maximize efficiency and functionality to service the 6-million-plus passengers who fly through Logan International Airport each year.

A Phased Approach to Maintain American Airlines Airport Operations

Working with AA, we designed a five-phase approach to complete the co-location work in tandem with the base building renovation of the Terminal at Logan International Airport. The primary goal was to keep the departments within the spaces fully functional within swing spaces while we reshaped their newly spaces to create better efficiencies.

This approach meant we had to move groups individually so that no two groups had to share a swing space at the same time. Each reconfigured space was then refurbished to improve communication between departments and offer opportunities for flexibility where previously none had existed—for instance, a multipurpose room that can be opened off to host all-hands meetings or cordoned off into smaller rooms for individual department huddles.

Phased Construction Approach of American Airlines operations at Terminal B of Boston Logan International Airport

  • Phase 0 – Decommission the existing escalator and modify an existing hold room into main swing space
  • Phase 1 – Tech Ops/Facilities/Regional/Vendor
  • Phase 2 – Fleet Services/Tower
  • Phase 3 – Customer Care/Admin/Flight Ops
  • Phase 4 – Finishes, Touch Ups, Handover

Redesigning Primary Circulation to Increase Efficiency

Over the years Terminal B airport operations spaces had been subject to layers of patchwork fixes, so we gut-renovated the whole thing and gave each department brand new spaces. We took out unnecessary offices to ease circulation, including creating a main thoroughfare with cross streets through the space—now known as the “runway”—which streamlined and improved access between many spaces for employees.

Gaining Ramp Access from All Sides of the Pier

Simultaneously, we improved ramp access. Previously, ramp workers were allotted small areas which were segregated from the rest of the airport operations areas preventing them from passing through the Terminal to the other side. The existing penetrations in Terminal B gave us the framework, and with a little strategic space planning, we successfully gained access to all sides of the ramp from the entire Terminal, significantly improving the workflow and efficiency for all personnel.

Consolidation at Logan International Airport Finalized

The acquisition of US Airways by AA occurred in the fall of 2015, and American completed the consolidation project in January of 2019. The newly renovated spaces at Terminal B of Logan International Airport ultimately improve the customer experience for AA, with Mancini’s work behind-the-scenes on airport operations spaces help the airlines seamlessly facilitate back-of-house operations as efficiently as possible.