Southwest Announces Expansion at MacArthur Airport in Long Island

Herb Kelleher, the chairman of Southwest Airlines, flew into MacArthur Airport in Islip on Monday to help officially dedicate Southwest's new terminal and announce a new $20 million expansion there.

Town officials called the new project ''Phase 2'' after Southwest's $55 million terminal renovation debuted at the airport in August. Construction of the latest expansion is scheduled to begin this winter and take a year to complete. It will add four more gates and connect with the existing buildings.

Local officials, including Representative Steve Israel, Democrat of Huntington, hailed the partnership between the town and Southwest, which has resulted in major improvements to the increasingly busy regional airport. Southwest began with 12 flights a day from Long Island in 1999. The airline now has 25 flights a day.

Mr. Kelleher said that MacArthur was one of the fastest-growing regional airports that his company uses.

''It's been sensational,'' he said. ''The growth has been tremendous. There are two and a half million people on Long Island. This is a great opportunity for us.''

Mr. McGowan cited a new Hofstra University economic impact study that said MacArthur had generated $202 million for the Island's economy in 2004.

But residents who live nearby oppose further expansion of the airport because of noise and other environmental concerns. David Winzelberg