The state is planning a new $1.1 billion concourse for Daniel K. Inouye Airport that will increase the number of gates, add passenger capacity and provide a new international arrivals area, Gov. David Ige announced Tuesday.

Airports officials said the new 800,000-square-foot facility will be built in phases on what is now an employee parking lot, a base yard for the airport’s Wiki-Wiki shuttle vehicles and land that is now occupied by the existing Diamond Head Concourse.

The project will begin by extending the existing Diamond Head Concourse and adding six new gates that can accommodate wide-body aircraft.

Airport officials will then assess the operation and, if more gates are needed, will demolish the existing concourse between Gates 6 and 11 to add another six gates there, said Ford Fuchigami, the governor’s administrative director. Additional gates can be added in the future by extending the concourse.

The Legislature appropriated $5 million to begin planning the project about two years ago, and airport officials will soon award a planning contract for the new facility. Ige said construction will start in five years and should be completed five years after that.

Matt Shelby, co-chairman of the Airlines Committee of Hawaii and managing director of airport affairs and real estate for Alaska Airlines, said the new concourse will help ease congestion at the airport during peak hours, which are from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

He described the project as “the beginning of an exciting new era for the airport and ultimately for all of Hawaii’s airports.”

The project will be financed entirely with revenues collected from the airlines and from concession operators at the airport, according to state Department of Transportation spokesman Tim Sakahara.

The existing Diamond Head Concourse opened more than 40 years ago, and Ige said the new concourse will “make the airport more efficient for passengers, employees, the airlines and businesses that operate at the airport.”

The new facility will include a 200,000-square-foot Customs and Border Protection facility that will be able to process 4,000 arriving international travelers per hour, which will cut the passengers’ processing time, Ige said.

The airports system is already investing nearly $3 billion in new construction across the state, including new consolidated rental car facilities in Honolulu and on Maui that will cost about $340 million each. The state also plans to begin construction on a new $240 million Mauka Concourse adjoining the interisland terminal this summer.

Ige said 20 million passengers fly in or out of Daniel K. Inouye Airport each year, and “virtually every airline is interested in expanding seats to Hawaii.” By starting the planning process now for the new Diamond Head Concourse, the state will keep people working in the years ahead, particularly as the construction industry slows, he said.

As they announced the project at a news conference Tuesday, Ige and Shelby also put in a plug for creation of an “airport corporation” that would grant the airport system a greater degree of independence.

The current system is cumbersome, and a quasi-public airport corporation operating under its own board of directors would allow for more rapid decision-making and more streamlined budgeting and procurement processes, Ige said. The new concourse would be completed much faster if an airport corporation were created, he said.

“Most importantly, we would be able to bring our airports back up to international standards so our facilities don’t fall further behind in the global competitive marketplace,” he said.

Opponents of the airport corporation have questioned whether creating a new bureaucracy will do much to improve the airports.