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Tampa Airport Has Worst Drop In Traffic Since 2001

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By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 10, 2008

TAMPA - Tampa International Airport in September experienced its worst decline of passenger traffic since November 2001, two months after the 9/11 attacks, an airport report issued Friday said.

The U.S. economic crisis and a decrease in airline capacity in response to high fuel prices resulted in a 12.3 percent year-over-year decline to 549,001 departing passengers.

That nearly matched the 13.7 percent year-over-year decline in November 2001, when travel fears and a faltering economy reduced travel.

"Actually, a lot of the decline is based on the economic conditions," airport director Louis Miller said. "They definitely have seats available. For example, the total seat capacity in September would have been approximately 805,000 seats and we had 549,001 enplaned passengers which would be a load factor of approximately 68.2 percent."

September's sharp decline contributed heavily to a 2.9 percent decrease to 9.35 million departing passengers during the 12-month period ended Sept. 30.

Since the number of inbound passengers generally equals the number outbound, that means the airport served about 18.7 million passengers during the past fiscal year, compared with about 19.25 million the previous year.

Southwest Airlines remained the busiest carrier at Tampa International for the 12-month period with 2.7 million or 28.8 percent of Tampa International's departing passengers. Delta Air Lines, US Airways, American Airlines and Continental Airlines followed in order behind Southwest.

All of Tampa International's busiest carriers lost passenger traffic in September, with Southwest down 11 percent to 160,761 departing passengers.

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

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