While many airports continue to struggle, Tampa is setting passenger records. And adding checkpoints could reduce waits.
By JEAN HELLER
Published May 14, 2004
TAMPA - The numbers at Tampa International Airport keep getting better.
Air fares are still low, revenue and passenger numbers are growing, and airport officials have received approval from the Transportation Security Administration to add airside screening checkpoints that should ease waiting lines.
"Most airports aren't seeing this kind of success in their passenger growth," Louis Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority, told his board on Thursday. "We are all the way back from 2001."
In five of the past seven months, TIA has set records for passenger counts, easily surpassing the same months of 2000 and 2001 before the terrorist attacks.
In April, the 821,000 boarding passengers represented a 16 percent increase over the 710,000 who boarded a year earlier and a 6 percent increase over April 2001.
Comparing March 2001 to March 2004, food and beverage sales in the landside terminal soared 18.4 percent and nearly 46 percent at the airsides. Merchandise sales were up 3.7 percent in the landside terminal, nearly 42 percent at the airsides.
Public parking revenue was up 11.5 percent. Even rental car revenue, the slowest market to recover from the terrorist attacks, was up nearly 11 percent from a year earlier. And total gross revenues were up nearly 9 percent.
Increasing passenger numbers coupled with post-9/11 security crackdowns have resulted in long lines for passengers during peak periods. As early as today, TIA will open an additional security lane at Airside A to handle up to 200 passengers an hour.
The airport also has received approval from the TSA to add two additional lanes to Airside E, though they won't be available until fall, and to open the new Airside C next April with eight instead of the previously planned six lanes.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the average one-way domestic fare out of TIA was $124 in the third quarter of 2003, the latest period for which figures are available. This was the same as Fort Myers International Airport and lower than Orlando's $127, Miami's $165 and Jacksonville's $132. Only West Palm Beach at $118 and Fort Lauderdale at $123 were lower than TIA in Florida.
