LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – Four hundred twenty-five thousand passengers fly in and out of the Lafayette Regional Airport every year and things are about to get even busier.

Behind the scenes work is well underway on the new airport terminal. Community members selected the “Journey” design. The airport is currently moving through the environmental process with the Federal Aviation Administration.

“We’re going to start breaking ground sometime before the end of the year,” said Steven Picou, the airport’s executive director. “When the environmental assessment is finished we’ll take down a building that’s located behind us,”

That building used to be a UPS cargo hangar. UPS moved into the airport’s new cargo facility last month. Fedex will        move into the new building next month.

Picou said the current terminal has four gates used by three airlines. The new terminal will have five gates.

“Lafayette is the fourth largest airport in the state of Louisiana working out of the smallest square footage,” Picou said.

The current terminal is more than 60 years old. It is 60,000 square feet. The new terminal will be 120,000 square feet with room to expand.

Picou said the security checkpoint will also be widened. The goal of the new terminal is to attract more flights, airlines, and customers to Lafayette. The entire project will cost $130 million.

Lafayette Parish residents approved a temporary one-cent sales tax for the project for eight months in 2015. Gov. John Bel Edwards talked about that last month during the cargo facility’s groundbreaking.

“The people of Lafayette chose to tax themselves and in eight months I think generated $33 million for that passenger terminal,” Edwards said.

The rest of the money for the terminal project will come from the federal and state governments and passenger surcharges. The new terminal is slated to open in 2022. The current terminal will be torn down after that.

Picou said the new terminal will also have food concession options on both sides of the security checkpoints.