(CNN) — “The very first matter you observe about New Orleans are the burying grounds — the cemeteries — one of the ideal points there are below” wrote Bob Dylan in his 2004 reserve “Chronicles: Quantity 1.”

“Heading by, you test to be as silent as attainable, better to permit them slumber… The previous does not move away so speedily in this article.”

The famous American folksinger was not wondering about the virtually deserted airport terminal at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International (MSY), but his words definitely are apposite. Even though not lifeless however, the old MSY is presently stuck in tranquil purgatory.

CNN Travel went to investigate.

New $1.3 billion terminal

Architecturally speaking, the ultramodern César Pelli-intended terminal is an worldwide gateway that could possibly appear a lot more at property in Bahrain than the Bayou.

On the south facet of the airfield, “The Town That Care Forgot” has all but forgotten its outdated airline terminal.

It was the bustling locale of countless travelers toasting their Mardi Gras journey with 1 very last Hurricane, emotional embraces of reunions and farewells, and late travellers breathlessly managing to make their flight. The building’s darkest and very best hour was as a shelter and staging location all through Hurricane Katrina. Now it lies in repose.

On its ultimate day of operations on November 5, 2019, almost 15,000 persons flowed via its doors. As the previous flight out neared, New Orleans laissez le bon temps rouler one particular past time, sending the exhausted 61-yr-old edifice off in fashion with a regular jazz funeral next line parading all over the terminal.

As is custom, when the deceased is laid to relaxation — or “the physique is cut loose” — the mourners slash free far too.

In MSY’s circumstance, the mourners were not actually mourning but ended up travellers becoming a member of in the impromptu celebration although other people seemed on in bemusement. The passengers boarding the final departure out, a Southwest Airlines flight to Tampa, Florida, just after 9 p.m., struck up a rousing rendition of “When The Saints Go Marching In.”

With the tough cutover to the new terminal just hours absent, work crews loaded the past of airline signage, computer system terminals, concession materials, and TSA stability devices into an armada of moving vans — certain for their new house.

By midnight, with its raison d’être carried out, the curtain had occur down on the South Terminal on Airline Drive which abruptly and hauntingly became a ghost town.

Terminal decrease

Kevin Dolliole, a indigenous New Orleanian and the airport’s director of aviation, has a whiff of nostalgia when describing what it is really like when he measures from his new 21st-century airport showplace again in time to the aged facility exactly where the airport’s administration places of work nonetheless remain.

“My pretty initial flight was out of this facility when I was seven a long time aged,” he says. “And owning labored right here in excess of the years, acquiring all of the recollections of the hustle and bustle in this facility it was seriously peculiar and nearly unfortunate to see it in a state like this.”

A yr and a fifty percent considering that it closed, I compensated a go to to a forlorn previous good friend I’d last viewed on its previous day as a operating airline terminal.

A passenger hadn’t set foot in the area nor a jet parked on a person of its gates given that that previous 2019 flight before the globe improved.

I might anticipated to locate a deserted shell with aged tickets, unsold magazines, and beignet crumbs strewn about. I imagined a dim, moldy space with clocks frozen in time, and proof of a last-minute evacuation, a lot like I would found at one more deserted airport I might frequented years ahead of, Colorado’s Denver Stapleton.

Rather, New Orleans, a town that reveres its earlier, has cleaned and quickly preserved the city’s old entrance doorway — a remain of execution, in advance of the inescapable. I located the lights and air conditioning on. And it was cleaner than I’d at any time viewed it. Spotless. Even in the nevertheless performing restrooms.

It was not quite dead, but was not quite alive either. The flight screens have been all dark and run down. Check-in desks had been devoid of signage, stanchions, kiosks… and individuals. I was tricky-pressed to locate any detritus, save for a sole unprinted boarding move. The former rumbling baggage declare belts were stopped in their tracks.

The place as soon as TSA checkpoint screening gear, personnel and interminable passenger traces had stood, was now apparent and vacant place. The jetways, however continue to intact, ended up vacant portals to nothingness. The bars and places to eat cleared out of their previous Abita beer and Blessed Dogs, with nary a discarded bottle or serviette remaining driving.

The legendary nine-foot-large Louis Armstrong “Satchmo” sculpture which presided over the classic parabola structure, welcoming the masses of humanity, was however there. But his ebullient expression belied a loneliness that comes with no a person to welcome.

Apart from a layer of dust, what was remaining driving was almost perfectly preserved. Curiously there were being canned airline community address bulletins continue to at times echoing by way of the air: “Curbside is utilized for loading and unloading only.”

It was as if the rapture experienced took place. Or Stephen King’s “The Langoliers” was fact, not fiction.

Airport afterlife

Significantly of the 1.2 million sq. toes terminal will inevitably meet up with its demise, with the unique 1950s-era departures hall and Concourse A and B becoming the first to drop to the wrecking ball in the following 18-24 months. This is just not as uncomplicated as it appears.

“Our architectural workforce is heading via the creating figuring out how to split down a creating with various generations of construction that tends to make it a minimal bit complicated”, claims Jamie McCluskie, the airport’s deputy director of aviation, setting up and enhancement.

The Old MSY however displays a faint pulse. Much of the building carries on to be taken care of and powered up simply because the airport’s administrative workplaces, emergency functions middle, law enforcement workplaces, and servicing and carpentry shops remain here and will for some time. Their go across the campus was delayed by the pandemic.

The sprawling capacious terminal has located a non permanent next lifetime as a place for Tv set and movie productions which delivers a profits stream. The displays shot here include things like “NCIS: New Orleans” and adventure fact sport show “The Wonderful Race.” The airport director claims with a laugh that he “experimented with to convince the producer to put clues in my office, but they failed to end up likely for it.”

In May well 2021 it was also turned into a temporary skate park, when skate crews from throughout the southern states collected for a skate jam as aspect of the Pink Bull Terminal Takeover.

In reality, aspect of the terminal will be preserved and repurposed, like the iconic 1959 parabola dome framework.

“In New Orleans we have a ton of value for historic buildings and it absolutely has a whole lot of background. So we are all for retaining that as element of long term development options”, claimed McCluskie. The rather new Concourse D, which opened in 1996, will be repurposed for charters and doable works by using for personal procedure. The parking constructions and rental vehicle facilities will stay forever in position as very well.

For those fascinated in proudly owning an old ticket counter, a baggage claim carousel, gate chairs, or even a jet-bridge there will likely be a general public auction. Indeed, background has confirmed there are essentially enthusiastic purchasers for these concourse castoffs. Just check out eBay.

With a compact hemmed-in web-site place of 1,700 acres, redevelopment of the current terminal’s footprint is important to the financial long term of the airport and area. The airport is in the midst of a 20-calendar year master program that seeks to redeploy that real estate into space for hangars, cargo, a logistics hub for organizations like Amazon and UPS, and even mild rail. “We’re likely to be really prudent about how we go about this and be pretty thoughtful on the lookout ahead”, says Dolliole.

As he oversees the lengthy, gradual goodbye to the aged MSY, Dolliole is aware the time has arrive in spite of his affection for it. “The new terminal type of makes you fail to remember about the previous 1. I just offered a vehicle that I had owned and loved for 13 many years. I just about cried when I walked away from it. But the initially time I drove its substitute, I forgot all about that old motor vehicle.”