The south concourse is a new 225,000-square-foot facility dedicated to United Express regional flights.

The new terminal has 15,000 square feet of food and beverage and retail concessions, a 500% increase in the concession space over the previous facility. The 17 concessions include two new celebrity-chef venues with local and regional ties, and other first-time dining concessions with Texas roots, as well as several familiar airport favourites.

Travelers in the new facility will also have shopping options like The iStore Boutique, travel essentials store, Relay, Brookstone and The Body Shop. Other retail stores include Ice Currency Exchange, Johnston & Murphy, Natalie’s Candy Jar and Nuance Duty Free.

Terminal B will be the primary facility in Houston for United Express flights operated by regional partners ExpressJet, SkyWest, Trans States and Shuttle America. The first 15 gates of the facility are planned to be fully operational by May. The airline will add 15 more gates by the end of 2013.

The project’s design also incorporates energy-efficient techniques using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) criteria.

The airline’s investment in the new terminal supported more than 300 local construction jobs. Additionally, 45% of the Terminal B south concourse concessions are minority-controlled.