McKinney National Airport's New Terminal Opens to Commercial Flights Next Month

McKinney National Airport's new commercial passenger terminal is on track to open Nov. 11, when Avelo Airlines begins the first scheduled flights in the airport's history. The $79 million, 46,000-square-foot terminal has been roughly 18 months in the making and gives Collin County its first local alternative to DFW International and Dallas Love Field.

The terminal opens with four gates, expandable to five or six as demand grows, along with a 980-space public parking lot priced at $15 a day, onsite rental car facilities, and centralized food and beverage concessions. City officials have said the facility is designed to handle up to 1 million passengers a year, though they expect closer to 200,000 in its first twelve months.

Avelo's initial route map sends flights from McKinney to Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, and Tampa, with service phased in between Nov. 11 and Nov. 19. The airline will add four more nonstop destinations in mid-December — Atlanta and Denver starting Dec. 16, and Nashville and New Orleans starting Dec. 17 — flying a mix of four-times-weekly and twice-weekly schedules. One-way fares start at $99.

Avelo plans to base three Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft at the airport and expects the operation to create roughly 150 local jobs, including pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, and gate agents. "The experience is truly different and unique," Avelo CEO Andrew Levy said of the airline's approach to smaller, less congested airports like McKinney's. "It's faster, it's easier and it's just simply better in terms of when you're on the ground."

The terminal's opening caps years of growth at the general-aviation airport, known as DTX, and gives McKinney residents a direct-flight option without the drive into Dallas or Fort Worth — part of a broader wave of investment remaking the city's northern edge along US-75.