ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport is planning a new parking garage and terminal renovations as officials work to accommodate a growing number of passengers.<\/p>\n
Airport officials said the parking garage is expected to add 1,700 parking spaces. The garage phase is expected to be completed by spring 2028.<\/p>\n
The terminal renovations will include more signage, charging stations and new furniture, said Michele Routh, the airport\u2019s public relations director.<\/p>\n
The terminal design phase is expected to begin in early fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had just tremendous growth here at the airport,\u201d Routh said. \u201cI mean, in a 10-year period up to 2024, almost 200 percent increase in passengers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The airport saw a record-breaking number of passengers last year, with nearly 2.8 million travelers, officials said. Routh said the airport is finding ways to accommodate everyone as travel demand grows.<\/p>\n
Passengers Melissa Beaudoin and her son, Justin, were visiting from Kansas City and said this was their second time at the airport. Their previous visit was in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more people,\u201d Melissa Beaudoin said. \u201cWe did notice that getting off the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beaudoin said one of the airport\u2019s strengths has been how easy it is to navigate.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing off and coming in, and the baggage claim was easy to find, restrooms were easy to find,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Justin says these new additions will be a big help to passengers like himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely very close quarters, so a parking garage would come in handy, I think,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Melissa Beaudoin said she has seen how airport renovations can improve the travel experience, citing changes at Kansas City International Airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey renovated KCI, we\u2019ve gone through that for the last 5 to 10 years, and just having that extra room there, I can see how that would benefit here too, especially St. Pete,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Airport officials said they look forward to seeing passenger numbers continue to grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport is planning a new parking garage and terminal renovations as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2031,558,6076,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,14104,835],"class_list":["post-314189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-local-business","tag-business","tag-lizbeth-gutierrez","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-topic-latest-local-business-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314189","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=314189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}