{"id":54769,"date":"2025-11-20T22:38:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T22:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/54769\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T22:38:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T22:38:13","slug":"st-pete-clearwater-airport-prepares-for-holiday-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/54769\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete-Clearwater Airport prepares for holiday travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport is gearing up for a busy travel week for Thanksgiving, and with that comes some warnings from the airport director.<\/p>\n

He suggests people plan ahead and make sure they arrive early before their flights.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been traveling since I was 3 years old so I think I can manage pretty well,” said 11-year-old Dawson Gardner.<\/p>\n

Gardner has traveled through the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport several times, and said usually things go pretty smoothly.<\/p>\n

“There’s nobody here and it\u2019s so good to get in and out,” said Gardner.<\/p>\n

But from time to time, they run into some issues.<\/p>\n

“People are everywhere and you\u2019re jam packed and you\u2019re trying to find out where you\u2019re going and all that stuff,” said Gardner.<\/p>\n

“There’s only two or three times a year, holidays, where it\u2019s congested and that\u2019s an issue,” said Connie Deneweth, another traveler.<\/p>\n

And with the holidays right around the corner, the airports are about to get a little crazier.<\/p>\n

\"airplane\"<\/p>\n

WFTS<\/p>\n

“We are not going to have parking spots for every single passenger\u2026we currently have over 20 thousand passengers for that one week that are going to be departing out of the airport,” said Mark Sprague, interim director of St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport.<\/p>\n

Sprague said with limited parking at the St. Pete-Clearwater Airport, people need to plan ahead.<\/p>\n

“Please try to find a ride or get dropped off, get picked up\u2026whatever it takes because we just want to make sure that passengers have an enjoyable time,” said Sprague.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t plan ahead, Connie Deneweth, said things can get hectic.<\/p>\n

“Luggage being lost, I see people getting angry because their rental car was given away. That\u2019s tough\u2026and when you\u2019re on vacation you have a limited number of days\u2026it increases frustration,” said Deneweth.<\/p>\n

But earlier this week, Pinellas County Commissioners approved a new taxi-way to be developed on 130 acres of unused land, and next month county leaders will be discussing a new parking garage.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s going to be a hopefully 2000 space parking garage, with approximately 350 surface parking\u2026and from start to finish, from design, we should hopefully have that open by middle of 2027,” said Sprague.<\/p>\n

Cecilia Chesney said the improvements will help make traveling to and from the Tampa Bay Area much easier.<\/p>\n

“The parking garage is going to help so many more people come through here swiftly because lets face it\u2026if its not working, they will stop coming here,” said Chesney.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Casey

Casey Albritton is dedicated to telling your stories throughout Pinellas County. From South St. Petersburg to Tarpon Springs, she\u2019s there to share the triumphs and struggles of the community she calls home. So, let Casey know about the stories that matter to you.
.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

‘It\u2019s become a health hazard’: Treasure Island targets overgrown lawns after Helene<\/p>\n

No matter how much he\u2019d like to forget about Hurricane Helene, Scott Baker still sees reminders on all sides of his Treasure Island home.<\/p>\n

‘It\u2019s become a health hazard’: Treasure Island targets overgrown lawns after Helene<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport is gearing up for a busy travel week for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[205,6731,1339,2889,34176,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,5910,3670,1189],"class_list":["post-54769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-abc-action-news","tag-airport","tag-clearwater","tag-holiday","tag-pie","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-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-thanksgiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54769","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=54769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}