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TIA growth: 'Unbelievable'

Low fares, a good state economy and more nonstop jet service combine to break records for the airport.

By JEAN HELLER
Published January 22, 2005

TAMPA - The passenger growth at Tampa International Airport has broken so many records in the last year that even the facility's boss says he finds it "unbelievable."

TIA set passenger records in 10 of the 12 months of 2004.

Only two months fell just short of a record: January, which was competing against the Super Bowl inflation of January 2001, and August, when the airport was closed for several days by hurricanes. But otherwise, it was all uphill.

"I think a lot of it has to do with the economy of Florida, which is doing very well," Louis Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority, said Friday. "We've also now got so much low-fare service and introduced so much new nonstop service in the last quarter of last year that people want to fly."

At a time when two legacy airlines, United and USAirways, are in bankruptcy, when American is struggling and Delta recorded the highest single-year losses in the history of commercial aviation, Florida airports in general, and TIA in particular, are soaring. It is an irony not lost on passengers.

While Darrin Gates waited in a long line to board a shuttle to Airside E at TIA Friday morning, he read a newspaper story about Delta Air Lines setting a new record for losses last year.

"I don't get it," said Gates, an advertising executive from Atlanta. "I'm about to board a Delta 757 that's fully booked and probably oversold, and that's always the way it is. And the airline is losing billions of dollars? It makes no sense."

Soaring fuel costs and the need to compete with low-fare carriers are the major factors affecting traditional airlines, forces that don't have an impact on airports. Fuel costs affect airports only when they drive airlines out of business. And low fares actually draw in customers. The low-fare equation at TIA is especially good. Ten years ago, low-fare carriers there served 57 destination cities with nonstop service. In 2000, that number had grown slightly to 62. By 2004, the number jumped to 76, and of the 76, 63 of the nonstop routes are flown by jets, a much higher percentage than ever before.

"If you can go nonstop, in a jet, and for a low fare, too, people are going to travel," Miller said."

Of the top 40 most-popular destinations from Tampa, 37 now have nonstop service. The three that don't are Seattle, San Francisco and San Diego.

"We've talked to Alaska Airlines about nonstops to Seattle, and we are hopeful," Miller said. "Alaska Airlines already serves Orlando and Miami, and we think they would find a market here, too."

Miller said he would like to encourage Southwest Airlines, TIA's second-largest carrier, to consider nonstop service to San Diego, as well as Cleveland, Detroit, Norfolk, Va., and other cities.

In the last three months of 2004, nonstop service from TIA experienced a growth spurt, with new flights to Columbia, Greenville and Charleston, S.C., Huntsville, Ala., and Knoxville, Tenn., most of them markets that previously could be reached only with a change of planes in Atlanta or Charlotte.

Those flights are flown by a new low-fare carrier, Independence Air.

"As soon as Independence made that announcement, Delta announced service to the same markets," Miller said. "We went from no nonstop service to four regional jet flights a day."

There also are new nonstops to Rochester, N.Y., Salt Lake City, Flint, Mich., and Dayton, Ohio, with nonstops to Boston up from two to three daily.

"This has stimulated traffic growth tremendously," Miller said. "It's unbelievable."

Putting hard numbers to it, passenger traffic at TIA grew in October 2004 by 9.6 percent over October 2003. In November the numbers were up 14.4 percent and up 12 percent in December.

More than 768,000 passengers boarded aircraft at TIA in December, compared with 686,000 a year earlier.

The pressure of the growth on the airport is obvious. Parking during peak periods can be impossible. The long-term garage fills up even during off-peak travel periods. A new remote garage at the south end of the airport property won't open until November.

Airside E is using all eight of its security lanes years before that was expected to be necessary. The new Airside C, due to open in April, will have 10 security lanes, and officials wonder how long it will be until they are maxed out.

And airport officials acknowledge they might have to start thinking about building a second terminal complex to the north of the existing one years earlier than the planned date of 2020.

The growth isn't limited to Tampa. Airports nationally have recovered from the drop-off in traffic after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and the picture in Florida is even better.

Despite the late-November loss of Southeast Airlines, which accounted for 22 percent of the passengers at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, traffic there set a record for the year, up 34 percent over 2003. A priority for this year will be finding a carrier to replace Southeast.

"We have a terrific product to market to the airlines and look forward to welcoming new air carrier service, said airport director Noah Lagos.

The news was good at Orlando International Airport, too, where, despite severe hurricane damage, traffic during the first 10 months of 2004 equalled records set in 2000.

"Florida is a terrific market," said Whitney Eichinger, a spokeswoman for Southwest. "It's a very popular destination for both leisure and business, and it's a year-round deal. Tampa is particularly good because it pulls from such a large geographic area."

Southwest is situated to have a profitable year, Eichinger said, because of its fuel-buying strategy.

"We made a deal to buy fuel for a set price for the year, which was capped at $26 a barrel," she said. "The market prices are ranging from $40 to $45, so the high fuel prices aren't creating the adversity for us that other carriers are experiencing."

Can the current growth continue indefinitely?

"No. Heavens, no," Miller said. "I wouldn't be surprised if we sent another record this month, but it will stabilize because the capacity isn't there to accommodate this pace much longer, either in airports or in the skies. But it's been a good ride."

[Last modified January 22, 2005, 09:10:21]