Although wintry weather and heavy rains delayed construction earlier this year, Springfield-Branson National Airport's new Midfield Terminal should be complete early in 2009.

"We don't have a date yet -- it's going to be sometime this spring," said airport spokesman Kent Boyd. "The good thing is we don't really have a drop-dead date we have to be out of the old place."

In any case, the transition to the new facility -- which will take place overnight -- will be heavily publicized, he said.

"The big challenge is ... we're gonna have people show up on the wrong side of the airport, and they won't be happy."

Because many passengers will park their cars outside the old terminal for an outbound flight, then fly home into the new facility, the airport will have to arrange for shuttles for several weeks, he said.

The transition will be worth it, Boyd said.

There's ample parking outside the new terminal, which has waiting areas both inside and out where the public can watch flights arrive and depart.

"You can actually see an airplane, which was one of the complaints after 9/11," Boyd said.

For passengers, everything will be on one level.

After stepping through the south entrance into the massive main lobby, passengers will check their baggage on the right -- baggage claim is on the left -- before heading north, through a retail area and security, to the concourse.

Their bags, meanwhile, zip off on a conveyor belt to a lower level to be screened, sorted and delivered to waiting aircraft.

"This building's designed for post-9/11 security," Boyd said, noting that Transportation Security Administration operations had to be "shoehorned" into offices and other space at the old terminal.

Boyd said he anticipates questions -- some critical -- about the size of the new terminal, which is more than 50 percent larger than the old one.

"In reality, it's shorter than the other building, which has gotten very long," Boyd said. "The only thing (the old terminal) could do was get longer and get less and less efficient."

The new terminal was designed with expansion in mind. With 10 gates to start, the site offers room to add new concourses and another 50 gates in the future.

The project, begun in June 2006, is expected to cost about $117 million by the time it is complete. That figure, airport officials stress, doesn't include a cent of city tax money. About $20 million was paid for with federal aviation grants. The other $97 million was financed with revenue bonds issued by the airport.

The airport's plan to pay off the facility is based on making annual payments that are 50 percent more than required, Boyd said. Even if revenue declined 15 percent for a straight year -- twice the decline experienced after 9/11 -- it could continue to pay 25 percent more than necessary.

There's no word yet on what will be done with the old terminal once the switch is complete -- Boyd said city officials and the Springfield Chamber of Commerce are working together to lure a business to the site.