Sarasota Bradenton Airport Terminal will Get a New Wing. Here's Where It Could Go

One day, passenger traffic at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport will have grown heavy enough to justify adding another concourse, or wing, to the terminal.

That year might have been 2020, when SRQ, as one of the fastest growing airports in the United States, was projected to have 2 1/2 million passengers passing through the terminal.

That figure would have triggered plans to add a new wing on the east side of the airport, Rick Piccolo, the airport’s president and CEO, said wistfully after Monday afternoon’s Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority meeting.

That was before the COVID-19 pandemic intervened and turned conventional wisdom and reasonable expectations upside down.

Passenger traffic at SRQ has recovered about 43 percent of its pre-pandemic form. Even though that’s about 10 percent better than the national average, it leaves the trigger for adding a terminal wing some time in the indefinite future.

Monday, Howard R. Klein, associate vice president of AECOM, presented an update to the airport master plan to authority members.

“East is the way to go,” Klein said of possible expansion of the terminal.

The master plan update, looking at airport needs over the next 20 years, is about 70 percent completed and will be finished and returned to the airport authority later this year, Klein said.

Klein also discussed ways to improve foot traffic through concession areas, a possible passenger bridge that would extend from the second floor to the parking lot, increased baggage handling capacity, improvements to taxiways and runways and acquisition of property in the flight paths outside the airport.

Although none of the plans are anticipated to happen in the near future, the Federal Aviation Authority requires proposed airport changes be included in the master plan, Piccolo said.

Once the projects are included in the master plan, and approved by the FAA, the airport can submit funding applications to the FAA.

In other business on Monday, the authority heard presentations from three companies seeking to develop plans to design a new consolidated rental car facility on 8 1/2 acres of airport property. The project would be financed through fees paid by the rental car companies. Airport staff will begin the process of negotiating a contract with number-one ranked PGAL of Boca Raton. The project is estimated to cost $10 million.

The airport authority also approved a resolution reducing fees airlines pay to use SRQ. The authority agreed to lower the fees because of the tough economic challenges facing airlines, stemming from the pandemic.

The traditional airlines serving SRQ, such as Delta and American, will have their landing fees reduced by 25 percent.

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