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Airport reaching overload

At Tampa International and elsewhere, airport delays are lengthening as more people fly and security gets tightened.

TAMPA - October is traditionally a slower month at Tampa International Airport, and yet:

On any given day, motorists have a good chance of being greeted by signs saying the long-term parking garage is full.

On Monday mornings, it can take a half-hour to get from the terminal through airside security to a gate. Five people missed Southwest Airlines flights Monday because of long security lines at Airside A.

Even with eight security lanes open, Airside E recorded waits of 20 minutes this week.

The phenomenon is not unique to TIA. Although Tampa's passenger counts are growing faster than the national average, many airports in the country are seeing spurts in growth.

Passengers are being warned to get used to the crowds. Increasingly, this is the new norm in air travel.

"In 2000, airports started dealing with issues of capacity, reaching their limits on planes and passengers, and we're starting to see some of that again," said Howard Mann, spokesman for the North American region of Airport Council International.

And as the holidays approach, the backups will become daily affairs, airport officials warn.

"Absolutely, they will," said TIA spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan. "It's only peak travel days now, but as we get close to Thanksgiving, every day will be a peak."

TIA is drawing even more passengers than the national average, Mann said, because it isn't a hub.

"It's not at the mercy of a single carrier, and it's a breeding ground for competitive fares that definitely increase passenger numbers," he said.

TIA's passenger traffic from January through September was up an average of 12.27 percent. Nationally, at 430 commercial airports, the national average was up 5.8 percent, according to the Air Transport Association, the professional group for the nation's airlines.

In seven of the past nine months, TIA recorded double-digit growth over the same months of 2003.

There is no relief in sight for TIA crowds this year. The fall rush will become the holiday crush, and it will start long before passengers reach the terminal. It will start with the hunt for a place to park.

During nonpeak travel periods, motorists who find the long-term garage full are diverted to the short-term garage for the long-term rate, a serendipity of cost and convenience.

But Louis Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority, warned that motorists hoping to luck out during the holidays will be disappointed.

"We have to make sure we keep capacity in the short-term garage for people who really need to park there for just an hour or so," Miller said. "During the holidays, when the long-term garage fills up, people will have to turn around and go back to the remote economy lot, and that will take extra time."

During the holidays, Miller said, it will be imperative for motorists to arrive at the airport two hours before their flight times. Between the parking crunch and the delays in getting through security, passengers will need every minute of that.

"What we can't factor in is what the National Guard might add to the delays," Miller said.

There has been discussion of redeploying the Guard to airports nationwide in advance of the November election, "and we've heard, though nothing definitive, that it's possible they might stay right through the Jan. 20 inauguration," Miller said.

That means at least more vehicle searches.

It's too much for some people.

Margaret Carson, a retired teacher from Sarasota, was at TIA Tuesday to pick up friends coming in from New York. After dropping them off next week, Carson said she would not return to the airport until after the first of the year.

"I can't do it," she said. "Travel is a young person's thing now. People my age can't take the stress or the standing and waiting. The family is coming to us this year. We're not going any farther than the local grocery."

The worst security delays at TIA come Monday and Friday mornings at Airsides A and E, Geoghagan said.

"Between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., we have 56 departures, and they mainly come from Airsides A and E," Geoghagan said.

There is relief coming for parking and security, but it won't happen until next year.

In April, Airside C is scheduled to open, and Southwest Airlines will move there. Instead of the seven security checkpoints that max out at Airside A, Airside C will have up to 10.

And a 5,000-space garage will be built over part of the remote economy lot at the south end of the airport property. While construction is under way, part of the remote lot will be lost because officials don't want cars parking underneath the construction.

The garage is expected to open in time for next year's holiday season.

Total passenger growth in 2004 over the previous year at Tampa International Airport:

Month Percent increase

January: 5.4

February: 14.41

March: 13.5

April: 16.37

May: 16.4

June: 18.18

July: 12.87

August: 10.02

September: 0.83

Some of the passenger choke points at Tampa International Airport include:

PARKING: The long-term garage is increasingly full, and passengers are diverted to the short-term garage or forced to retreat to the remote economy lot at the south end of the airport property.

BOARDING SHUTTLES: When security lines at the airsides get so long that shuttle lobbies are full, passengers are forced to wait in the landside terminal just to board the shuttles.

AIRSIDE SECURITY: Lines at the security checkpoints sometimes overflow into areas between the shuttles and beside the shuttle exit doors. Earlier this year, getting to the airsides and through security consumed an hour or more.