Airport sets stages to grow into 2025

Keeping Tampa International Airport's prized national reputation intact for short ticket lines, on-time flights and available parking won't come cheaply.

On Thursday, TIA chief Louis Miller unveiled a 20-year plan to spend more than $2.5-billion on a bevy of projects, including a new north terminal complex that will mirror the existing terminal.

Miller said bids will go out this summer for architects to design the facility so it can open by 2015. It will cost about $920-million in a first phase to add 14 gates to an airport that already has 59. A second phase, planned for 2025, would add another 16 gates.

"The good thing is we have it staged,'' said Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. "We can speed it up or slow it down depending on growth.''

Built 35 years ago, TIA's current terminal can hold 25-million passengers a year. It already draws 19-million passengers a year and is expected to crest at 28-million before 2015.

The second terminal isn't the only big ticket item planned.

In the next five years, Miller said, TIA expects to spend $31-million on widening and building a bridge to the main drag into the airport, the George Bean Parkway.

It will cost $50-million to move the cargo building to make room for the new terminal. Adding baggage capacity will cost another $20-million.

Tampa's lack of mass transit options means the airport will need to spend more money on garages.

Miller said a second economy parking garage will be needed in the next five years, costing $67-million.

"If we had a decent light rail system, we wouldn't need that,'' he said.

About 22 percent of passengers who fly out of Washington National Airport get there by mass transit. By comparison, less than half of a percent of those who fly out of TIA arrive in anything other than private car or truck, Miller said.

"Building parking garages doesn't bother me," Miller said. "We make money. It's just not the most convenient way of travel for the public.''

Another garage is planned for the new terminal between 2011 and 2015. It will cost $144-million.

During that same period, a new security badge system is expected to cost $15-million and a fueling system about $38-million.

A runway on the west side of the airport after 2016 will cost $212-million, while new pavement on other runways will cost $124-million.

Officials didn't anticipate a need for a second terminal for another 20 years. But a population jump of 30 percent since 1990, in addition to projections of continued growth, made such a facility necessary sooner.

More than half the money to pay for this slate of projects would come directly from the public, through ticket sales and parking, and from airlines and other private companies, like car rentals. Much of the rest would come from government grants. TIA passengers now pay a flat rate of $4.50 on tickets. Miller said he hopes that rate will rise to $6 or $6.50 after 2008, but said there is no plan now to raise the fee.

St. Petersburg Times