Stores and restaurants at the Pittsburgh International Airport will be open to the public for holiday shopping next month.
It'll be open to anyone, not just passengers, on Saturday, Dec. 12.
Bob Kerlik, Pittsburgh International Airport spokesman, said anyone hoping to attend the holiday open house must register with a government-issued photo ID.
“We will accept walk ups that day,” Kerlik said, “however you will have to register when you get here and then get in the check-in line after that, so we are encouraging people to register in advance.”
The open house will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and there will be free parking in the short-term lot, according to Kerlik.
He said the crowd for the open house will not increase the time for passengers getting through security to catch a flight that day.
“The alternate checkpoint normally would not be open anyway, so the alternate checkpoint will be open that day, but that will be for the people taking advantage of the holiday open house,” he said. “So we sort of segregated them so the flyers will not see any additional line than they would have seen on a normal Saturday.”
He said the airport features several shops not available anywhere else in the region.
“We have a lot of high-end retail here, a lot of specialty retail that people want to be able to get to that you can’t get to at any of the local malls or downtown,” he said.
Some of those shops include Armani Jeans, Hugo Boss and Desigual.
Kerlik said last year’s open house was a success, with more than 1,000 people showing up.
“Some people came out just because they brought their kids, they wanted to just see the planes take off and land like you used to be able to do,” he said. “So we had people that were interested in that, we had a lot of kids sitting at the gates.”
Anyone interested in registering can do so on the Pittsburgh International Airport website.
The airmall has been closed to non-passengers since Sept. 11, 2001.
