St. Pete-Clearwater Airport Gears Up For Busy Holiday Season

CLEARWATER, FL — If you're flying for the first time in a while this holiday season, you'll see a number of changes at the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport — all for the better.

The Florida Department of Transportation is in the midst of improving the roads around the airport as part of the countywide Gateway Express Project.

This includes rebuilding the existing Roosevelt Boulevard from the Bayside Bridge to Ulmerton Road as generally two one-way surface roads including a new access configuration and roads into the airport terminal.

If traveling to the airport, be sure to allot extra time for construction delays. Click here for updates.

PIE is preparing for a busy holiday season after logging a record number of passengers (262,681) in July. That represents a 90 percent increase over last year.

October's numbers increased 41 percent over October 2020 with 175,137 passengers. The 2021 year-to-date increase is 42 percent over 2020.

In addition to the infrastructure developments, the airport’s tenants are resuming construction.

After a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, St. Pete-based 3 Daughters Brewing is constructing its new location in Gates 2-6 at the airport. It's expected to be open early next year.

The District Pub will be developed on the second floor for patrons in the pre-security area of the airport.

They join Mazzaro's Italian Market, which opened last summer in Gates 7-11, providing passengers with a respite while they await their flights. The airport also has a Dunkin, offering coffee and doughnuts, a Hudson shop with a variety of snacks, reading materials and travel items, and the Sand and Skye Shoppe and Market 361, offering books/magazines, snacks and drinks, gifts and souvenirs. Duty-free shopping is available for passengers departing on international flights.

Other new features passengers will enjoy are the kids' play zone where children can pretend to be pilots and practice their takeoffs and landings; the Mamava Pod, a private, relaxing environment for nursing moms; and public art including the 45- by 5-foot Sun Sky Sea glass art wall with blown and painted glass by Guy Kemper and palm tree architectural tile murals in the airport concourse.

The Canadian airline Swoop launched its nonstop flights this month to and from St. Pete-Clearwater to Toronto Pearson International Airport and John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport.

Swoop joins Sunwing, another Canadian low-cost airline, as the second international airline servicing PIE.

“International travel is coming back and we are starting to see Canadian borders loosen up restrictions,” Thomas Jewsbury, airport director.

Sun Country Airlines will launch a new route from St. Pete-Clearwater to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Nov. 25.

And Allegiant Air recently announced more nonstop connections through the airport, including a connection to Wichita, Kansas.

The airport now serves 65 non-stop destinations overall, the most in its history. Pre-pandemic, it had roughly 55 nonstop flights.

Last year, the airport finished a $22 million runway pavement rehab, refurbished the U.S. Customs facility and created an in-line baggage system. The runway 18-36 rehabilitation project was completed in the spring.

PIE also upgraded its FIDS system including Flight, Gate and Arrival/Departure Information displays. Flight information is now arranged by city versus time, has a weather and time stamp, provides flight status and bag belt locations for arrivals. The new system is ADA compliant with visual paging.

The airport introduced a new gate management system as well. Gates are automatically assigned when uploading monthly schedules, and alerts airport and air carrier operations when conflicts arise due to irregular operations. The system provides information to efficiently manage and plan PIE’s resources, including capacity estimates for passenger hold rooms.

Still on the drawing board, the airport has wrapped up an environmental assessment on the 130-acre former golf course on the southeast property of the airport, the largest piece of undeveloped property in Pinellas County. The property, known as Airco, is zoned for office and industrial use, and the county plans to use it for a mixed-use development.

Following an infrastructure site study on how the property can be developed, the county will begin accepting proposals for development.

The airport will use a portion of the Airco property to build a new taxiway to provide access to future aeronautical tenants on the site.

The airport is also undertaking an air cargo apron pavement rehabilitation project to allow future air cargo operations on the terminal apron. The conversion of decommissioned Runway 9 to a taxiway will allow taxiway operations for its air carriers, the U.S. Coast Guard and Pinellas County Sheriff Office aircraft.

In the meantime, St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport is preparing for the busy holiday season.

Here are some tips if you plan to travel during the holidays:

• Masks are required inside the terminal under federal regulations. Free masks are available at entry.
• Plan for parking or arrange transportation to the airport. The long-term parking lot will reach capacity ($12/day). The airport also anticipates both its Key Lime and Strawberry Economy Parking Lots ($8/day) to reach capacity. Passengers are encouraged to arrange transportation to PIE. The short-term parking lot is not intended for overnight parking and the rate for daily parking is $24/day. Click here for more information.
• Picking up passengers? Use the cell phone lot until your guests are ready with luggage at the curb. Curbside is for active loading and unloading only. No curbside waiting is allowed.
• Arrive early (Airlines recommend two hours before domestic flights and three hours for international).
• Check with your airline for updated flight information.
• Check with the TSA website for prohibited items.
• Double-check your carry-on items for prohibited items.
• Allow ample travel time to the airport. Shuttles operating to and from the economy parking lots may experience delays due to traffic congestion or construction activity.