post on the airport\u2019s official X account<\/a> said that after successfully going \u201cCrocs-free,\u201d Tampa International had \u201cseen enough\u201d of pajamas.<\/p>\n\u201cThe madness stops today. The movement starts now,\u201d reads the post, which had been viewed 5.7 million times by mid-afternoon Eastern time and generated a debate about airport attire in the comments.<\/p>\n
Beau Zimmer, an airport spokesperson, told The Associated Press the post was part of the airport\u2019s longstanding social media persona \u2014 a tongue-in-cheek voice it has cultivated since its early days on Twitter, before the platform rebranded as X. The account has attracted a loyal global following, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur regular social media followers just eat this stuff up,\u201d Zimmer said. \u201cBut obviously this is all in fun, and we encourage our travelers to be comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. Transportation Secretary\u00a0Sean Duffy\u00a0reacted to the post with a GIF of actor John Krasinski from the TV show \u201cThe Office\u201d looking into the camera and saying, \u201cYes!\u201d<\/p>\n
Duffy has been encouraging passengers to\u00a0dress more formally\u00a0while flying, part of a civility campaign he launched last November \u2014 called \u201cthe Golden Age of Travel Starts with You.\u201d The\u00a0Transportation Department\u00a0said the campaign was \u201cintended to jumpstart a nationwide conversation around how we can all restore courtesy and class to air travel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The airport released a statement Thursday clarifying its post was intended as a joke.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s post about \u2018banning\u2019 pajamas was another playful nod to day-of-travel fashion debates,\u201d it said. \u201cWe encourage our passengers to travel comfortably and appreciate our loyal followers who enjoy the online humor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zimmer said the airport\u2019s online personality has been around for at least a decade. In the earlier days of what was then Twitter, a young intern started posting light-hearted jokes, like poking fun at rival sports teams and fans, \u201cand it really took off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the day after the Tampa Bay Lightning\u00a0rallied from a four-goal deficit\u00a0to beat the Boston Bruins 6-5 in an NHL Stadium Series game in Tampa, the airport shared on X: \u201cOh, and safe flight home to all the Bruins fans today :)\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month, alluding to an ongoing joke about passengers mixing up the airport\u2019s code of TPA with TIA, an airport in Albania, the Tampa airport shared a New Year\u2019s resolution \u201cto stress out less.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately,\u201d the post continued, \u201csome of y\u2019all\u2019s resolutions is to continue calling us TIA so we will not be meeting our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
One X user responded that Tampa airport should just change its code to \u201cGOAT so people don\u2019t get confused,\u201d referring to the acronym for \u201cgreatest of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n
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