{"id":263333,"date":"2026-05-08T11:39:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/263333\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T11:39:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:39:51","slug":"tampa-airports-prepare-for-decades-of-coming-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/263333\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa airports prepare for decades of coming growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0As the aviation industry continues to grow across Florida, Tampa Bay\u2019s airports are preparing now to meet the demand in the decades to come.<\/p>\n

The aviation industry accounts for nearly 13.5% of Florida\u2019s GDP, according to a case study from the Florida Chamber of Commerce<\/a>, and experts believe the sector is only growing.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s part of the reason officials at Tampa International Airport have begun construction on a new 16-gate terminal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree years from now, Airside D will be complete, and it’s exciting to see things coming out of the ground with all the hard work that’s been done by our team,\u201d said Jeff Siddle, vice president of planning and development at TPA.<\/p>\n

When it opens, Delta Airlines will move in, making way for other airlines where the Atlanta-based carrier currently resides.<\/p>\n

\u201cSixteen gates will basically serve us through about 35 million annual passengers, which is about a 10 million increase from where we are today, so it’s absolutely needed in order to enable the growth and the future of TPA,\u201d Siddle said.<\/p>\n

That’s all part of the big plan, TPA\u2019s master plan<\/a>, that estimates more than 39 million passengers annually by 2042. Airside D is just one project underway to make it all happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose airports that did not get in front of their growth, and there are examples of that out there right now, they are spending an enormous to get caught up. When you do that, with a lot of traffic, it is extremely tough and a lot more expensive,\u201d said Siddle.<\/p>\n

Just across the Howard Frankland bridge is St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, PIE, where they, too, are growing.<\/p>\n

\u201c(We’re) primarily an Allegiant airport, we do have some Sun Country service,\u201d said Michele Routh, spokesperson with PIE. \u201cWe have 63 nonstop cities we have service to. All low-cost, non-stop service. It’s a great package here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leisure-based airport welcomed nearly 2.8 million passengers last year<\/a>, a new record. PIE officials are designing a large parking garage now, but say\u00a0further\u00a0plans to expand have been put on hold.<\/p>\n

The airport’s new director announced in late March they would be turning their focus to\u00a0renovation, improving\u00a0what’s already there, continuing to carve\u00a0out their part of the market<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are enough people that want to come to this destination whether it’s through Tampa’s airport, SRQ, or PIE, it’s really not a direct competition,\u201d Routh said.<\/p>\n

Both airports told us they serve different types of customers and enjoy the success the other brings to the region.<\/p>\n

In a statement, FDOT acknowledges the notable growth\u00a0in this transportation\u00a0sector and\u00a0the\u00a0expansions that are underway to accommodate it here, saying, “Partnering with these airports,\u00a0FDOT\u00a0has supported crucial projects that steadily grow and expand these airports operations, allowing for increased aviation activity, growth in passengers, and growth in businesses in the region.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we hear people are happy to come to the airport and excited to be here, that’s what we want. But the development in front of growth is mission critical,\u201d said Siddle.<\/p>\n

As demand takes off, airport leaders say keeping up isn\u2019t just the goal, it\u2019s a necessity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0As the aviation industry continues to grow across Florida, Tampa Bay\u2019s airports are preparing now to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4323,274,63156,276,115,596,135,137,136,278,835,63157],"class_list":["post-263333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-andy-cole","tag-app-top-stories","tag-app-watchdog-investigations","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod","tag-watchdog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}