 The $1.5 billion facility was to have seen its first phase complete and operational by 1999 but never received sufficient funding to be carried out.The idea of replacing the existing Birmingham International Airport first came to fruition in 1988 when then governor Guy Hunt proposed that the state build a new airport to serve as a replacement for the aging Birmingham facility.In 1991, the Alabama International Airport Authority was established by the state legislature with the purpose of developing both where the facility would be constructed as well as the method by which it would be constructed.