ANNA MARIA – Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ), one of the primary arrival points for people visiting Anna Maria Island, continues working to improve the facility to boost air travel.
Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority Executive Vice President Mark Stuckey addressed the Aug. 15 meeting of the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) with an update on the airport’s progress, crediting the relationship with the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) as being a big help in adding new flights and destinations.
“The tourist tax has been used as one of the incentives to ensure that when an airline adds new service to a new destination, a certain amount of marketing money will be dedicated to be spent in that city to promote the destination here and to let them know about the new route,” Stuckey said. “That’s had a huge impact. We’ve gone from six airlines and 12 non-stop destinations back in 2018 to 11 airlines and 53 non-stop destinations today.”
Stuckey said last year SRQ had 3,163,533 passengers, a 163% increase from 2020 and an over 60% increase from 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic slowed air travel. Year-to-date, 2,093,000 passengers have flown through SRQ. The projection for the number of travelers through the airport is 3,700,000, which would make it another record-breaking year if that goal is met. Stuckey said that issues with pilot shortages and rises in fuel prices were factored into projected numbers.
In the past two years, many capital projects have been completed at SRQ, including increasing fuel storage capacity, adding additional security checkpoints to speed up the traveler screening process, parking improvements and other general facility improvements. Despite what’s already been accomplished, Stuckey said there are more projects planned to keep up with the rapid growth.
“We have approximately $200 million worth of projects and we expect all of them to break ground by the end of the year,” Stuckey said.
Those projects include a new, $10 million ground transportation area at the end of the terminal where taxis, Uber, Lyft, MCAT and other ground transportation services pick up passengers.
Another project is a consolidated rental car facility. Anticipated to cost about $40 million, the new facility would have all rental car companies at the airport located on a single lot. Other planned additions include new parking lots, a park and ride lot and additional aircraft parking. The list of improvements also includes some behind-the-scenes projects to help make some airport day-to-day operations more efficient.
The largest of the upcoming projects is the anticipated $70 million construction of a new five-gate, ground-level terminal to cater to airlines like Allegiant who prefer ground-level boarding options and allow other carriers to expand as needed to service additional flights.
Upcoming flight additions include Allegiant’s non-stop service to Minneapolis in October, Air Canada returning in October and Breeze Airways extending service to White Plains, New York.
As a token of appreciation for his department’s assistance with the Breeze Airways deal, Stuckey presented a model Breeze Airways jet to CVB Executive Director Elliott Falcione.
