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Passenger decline lessens at TIA; future gains expected

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By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 19, 2009

TAMPA - Passenger traffic at Tampa International Airport declined 4.9 percent in July to 751,586 departing passengers, the lowest monthly percentage drop in a year, airport officials reported.

The airport generally gets the same number of arriving as departing passengers, so about 1.5 million passengers used the airport last month.

The recession has led to a 9.7 percent decline in passenger traffic for the fiscal year that began in October.

But airport officials expect better results in the coming months. They predict an 8.1 percentage decline for the 12 months ended Sept. 30 and a 2 percent gain in the next fiscal year compared with this year.

Southwest Airlines remained the busiest carrier at Tampa International in July with 32.9 percent of the traffic. Delta Air Lines ranked second with 18.4 percent, and US Airways was third at 9.7 percent.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

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