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Tampa Airport Sets Record For Departures In Fiscal Year

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By TED JACKOVICS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 12, 2007

TAMPA - Tampa International Airport set an all-time ridership record during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 with 9.63 million departing passengers, 2.5 percent more than a year ago, airport director Louis Miller said Thursday.

That means more than 19.2 million passengers used the airport during the 12-month period, because the airport generally serves an equal number of arriving and departing passengers.

'As TPA's traffic grows, it certainly demonstrates that we are currently on track for the new North Terminal Complex scheduled to open Oct. 1, 2015,' Miller said.

As recently as 2003, the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority thought that the first phase of a new terminal complex would not be required until 2020, the soonest the airport would exceed 25 million passengers and surpass the capacity of the main terminal.

However, Tampa International has enjoyed 25.7 percent growth in passenger departures since the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2003. Airport officials have continued to monitor growth trends to update their timetable to build a new terminal.

The airport also reported that Southwest Airlines continued to be the busiest airline, with 26.7 percent of the airport's market share in the 2006-07 fiscal year, compared with 25 percent a year ago.
Delta Air Lines ranked second over the past 12 months with 13.7 percent of the local passengers, while US Airways, American Airlines and AirTran Airways rounded out the top five.

WestJet, a Canadian airline, was the fastest-growing airline at Tampa with 86.1 percent growth to 47,412 passengers, and Spirit Airlines ridership increased 47.2 percent over the previous year.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817 or tjackovics@tampatrib.com.

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