St. Pete-Clearwater Airport sets sight on expanding as it hits passenger record

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport headed into 2023 with a record number of passengers flying in and out of the airport.

According to Michele Routh, the airport’s public relations director, about 2.4 million passengers visited the airport in 2022. That’s the most in the airport’s 65-year history, and a 20-percent increase compared to 2021, she said.

"This is a significant achievement for us," Routh said. "2019 was our last record-breaking year before the pandemic. That was the fifth year in a row that we set the record, so we're right back on track and actually, our numbers are up seven percent over 2019," she said.

According to Routh, they ranked 90th out of more than 430 airports nationwide in 2022 for the number of passengers that visited the airport.

Domestic passengers also increased by 19 percent and international passengers increased by 819 percent compared to 2021. Last month was also the biggest December on record with 211,024 passengers, Routh said.

Routh credits the beautiful weather and beaches in the Tampa Bay area and the airport’s partnership with Allegiant for the growth. Allegiant flies nonstop to 58 destinations.

Hudson Hall flies out of St. Pete-Clearwater about five times a year. He agrees with Routh.

"It’s just a great area," Hall said. "There’s so much to do, and it’s a great business community. The St. Pete and Tampa area welcomes everyone with open arms."

READ: NTSB: Cloud shot up in front a plane before severe turbulence

Routh said they’re working to accommodate the growth.

"One of our bigger challenges has been parking. We do have plans to expand, but parking doesn’t happen overnight," she said.

Routh said they’re adding 500 more parking spaces to the Strawberry Pie Economy Lot.

"We’re going to start construction in June 2023 approximately and be done by the Thanksgiving holidays – hopefully to expand the Strawberry and have a shorter shuttle distance," she said. "We’re going to pave it. It’s also on this side of Roosevelt Boulevard. Our primary lot now is across Roosevelt, so the economy shuttle takes longer to get to that. We’ll have it on this side of the terminal. It will be our primary one."

Routh said they’re also starting the design phase to expand the terminal this year. It’s a $100 million project that will include more space for passengers waiting for their fights, consolidate the TSA checkpoints from two to one and add new jet bridges.

"Sometimes our hold rooms are pretty full with passengers, so the airlines are scheduling based on that, getting in and out of the hold rooms and having enough room in the hold rooms," she said.

As far as more parking in the future, Routh said nothing is set in stone yet.

"In the future, we don’t know as far as parking garage. They’re very expensive. It’s going to be very challenging on the current footprint to, you know, close parking to have to build parking and so those are things that we will look at for the future," she said.

Routh also said FDOT reports the airport’s economic impact in 2022 was $3.4 billion. She said she believes they’ll continue to see steady growth over the next few years.