Memorial Day weekend marks the start of Tampa Bay area's busy summer travel season

Summer air travel forecast for Tampa Bay Area

FOX 13's Kylie Jones shares how airports around the Tampa Bay Area are bracing for a busy memorial day weekend as summer air travel season gets underway.

TAMPA, Fla. - The Memorial Day weekend marks the start of a busy summer travel season across the Tampa Bay area.

By the numbers:

Tampa International Airport is expecting 300,000 passengers to travel through the airport between Friday and Monday. TPA also expects to see about six million travelers this summer, which is on par with last summer, when the airport saw more than 6.1 million passengers.

Airport officials said it's not clear whether TPA will see record travel numbers this summer, but it will certainly be extremely busy.

"Probably about an average of 70-75,000 passengers a day. On peak days, we'll [have] more than 80,000, 85,000 passengers," TPA spokeswoman Emily Nipps said.

What they're saying:

Nipps said TPA has more international service than ever, including more flights, seats and destinations.

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"Our airlines are really counting on this being a busy summer for them as well, especially the international destination," she said.

Airport officials said they saw a small drop in travel numbers during the first half of the fiscal year.

"Some of that was due to the hurricane," Nipps said. "Some of that was due to the fact that we had a slower spring break period because Easter fell outside of our official spring break period."

Dig deeper:

However, TPA doesn't expect that to impact summer travel. Nipps also addressed nationwide concerns over air traffic control staffing.

READ: Gas prices this Memorial Day weekend will be cheapest in 4 years

"We are very confident that our air traffic control tower here is fully staffed and ready to handle the summer travel, but keep in mind that when there's something that happens at a major airport someplace else, it impacts us as well," she said. "It impacts all airports across the country."

TPA officials were asked about whether President Donald Trump's recent tariffs have had an impact on travel.

"Right now, we are seeing that some of the airlines, the Canadian carriers, have pulled back some of their service in anticipation of perhaps a decrease, but that has yet to be seen so far," Nipps said. "But, we are keeping an eye on it. So far, we haven't seen any major trends downward."

Local perspective:

In Pinellas County, earlier this month, St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport said it saw record passenger number in February and March.

"The tourism has really improved. We’ve seen record growth – even for March we were up 16%," St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport's Executive Director Thomas Jewsbury said.

MORE: More than 2M Floridians expected to travel this Memorial Day weekend

Officials with PIE expect passenger numbers to continue to climb through the summer travel season.

What you can do:

At TPA, airport officials said the busiest times of day are between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., and 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Airport officials are reminding passengers to arrive early, especially because some areas only have one shuttle running while a replacement project is going on.

You can find more information about parking, checking bags and other travel guidelines at TPA here.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Kylie Jones.

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