CARLSBAD -- People planning to fly home for the Christmas holidays may experience a new terminal at McClellan-Palomar Airport, but some regular airport travelers have said they hope the place doesn't prove too popular.

That's because the airport is one of North County's best-kept secrets. It's a place where folks can park for free and cruise through security with little delay.

But to airport officials, the commercial passenger area -- an aging trailer near the control tower -- was badly in need of a replacement. Work on the new terminal began late last year and a grand opening is planned for early December.

"It is exciting; people have been talking about a new terminal for 20 or so years, and it's becoming a reality," Assistant Airport Manager Olivier "OB" Brackett said Monday as he gave a tour of the construction site.

The airport site, a 255-acre parcel along Palomar Airport Road just west of El Camino Real, is a maze of orange traffic cones, yellow caution tape and big dirt piles these days. In addition to the terminal work near the airport's main entryway, the airport also is gaining new long-term parking lots along its southern edge.

The parking lots are scheduled to be paved in two weeks and an elevator between the lots and the terminal building is expected to be installed in six weeks. Brackett said.

Work began on the new terminal late last year, and things are moving along on schedule, construction superintendent Mike Kelly said. Most of the framing for the 18,000-square-foot complex is already in place, and the yellow insulation materials should be installed within the next several weeks, he added.

"Electricity, plumbing are all going full-scale ahead," he told Brackett with a big grin.

An improved experience

The Federal Aviation Administration is paying $13.2 million of the project's $24 million price tag. The remainder is being picked up by the county of San Diego, which owns the property and operates the airport.

The sleek, modern terminal, with its seashore-themed decorative touches, is expected to shove the airport into the 21st century. Commercial passengers at McClellan-Palomar now depart for planes after spending time in a small, aging portable building near the control tower.

The new facility will have a special baggage distribution area and a full-service restaurant, officials said. Passengers will clear security and gather in a pre-boarding room where they will find wireless Internet service and plenty of spots to plug in electronic equipment, Brackett said. There's even a little bit of outdoor seating in a glassed-in area.

"The passenger experience is going to be significantly improved," Brackett said, laughing as he added that any improvement would make a big difference.

The existing "holding area" where passengers wait after clearing security doesn't even have bathrooms, he said.

While the project may give the airport a much more impressive terminal, some regular commercial plane passengers have said that they hope the changes don't encourage more people to use the place.

In fact, when the plans were unveiled for the terminal, several travelers urged a reporter to write as little about the airport as possible, saying they wanted it to remain a "secret."

One Carlsbad woman said she deliberately didn't tell friends she used the airport for vacation trips because she didn't want to fight for parking spaces. A business traveler, who said he used the airport once a month, refused to say how quickly the boarding process typically took, adding that everyone would want to use the place if they knew.

Humming with activity

Airport officials have said they hope that the new construction at the airport will encourage more commercial carriers to use the place. The only daily commercial service now at McClellan-Palomar is Skywest Airlines, which offers seven flights a day, Brackett said. A second carrier, U.S. Airways, discounted its service in February. There's another airline using the facility -- Vision Airways -- but it only runs a few days a week.

"I think the market is there," Brackett said of having a second daily carrier. "We get complaints all the time that U.S. Air left."

Despite the limited commercial plane service, McClellan-Palomar continually hums with activity --- small private planes and corporate jets continually take off and land. In fact, the airport is considered to be one of the nation's busiest single-runway airports. Records for June indicate that there were a total of 18,157 landings and takeoffs.

In the past, there's been discussion of extending the airport's runway to allow it to accommodate larger planes with bigger fuel loads, but that proposal isn't part of the latest construction work at the airport.

Any proposal to extend the runway would take five to 10 years to come to fruition because there are significant environmental issues to overcome, Brackett said. The airport is a former landfill and disturbing its surface would require an extensive environmental review, he said.

While airport officials say the runway extension is not their main focus now, Carlsbad's Chamber of Commerce has started surveying its 1,700 members to find out their thoughts on extending the runway.

It's important to find out what's on people's minds," chamber President and Chief Executive Officer Ted Owen said as he discussed the survey the chamber issued earlier this month.

He added that if the results are positive, the chamber may see what it can do to push for the runway extension in the years to come. Survey results are expected early next month, he said.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.

Correction: Airport survey information in error

The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce survey results may be used if the chamber mounts a campaign to extend the runway at McClellan-Palomar Airport. However, the survey does not directly ask people if they support having a longer runway, a chamber official said Monday.

We apologize.