Deadline Set for New Sarasota Bradenton Airport Expansion To Open for ‘The Season’

Sept. 20, 2022

Sep. 20—MANATEE COUNTY — Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, one of the fastest growing airports in the world, has $200 million in construction projects planned or underway to handle the increasing passenger load.

Chief among those projects is construction of a ground boarding facility with five passenger gates and five places for airliners to load and off-load passengers, plus "bump outs" to the existing terminal to add more room and streamline passenger flow.

So, when might the terminal expansion be completed?

The best estimate is Oct. 1, 2024, to handle the heavy winter travel season.

That's the deadline that the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority recently gave DeAngelis Diamond, a construction management firm, which was awarded the contract for terminal expansion.

" Oct. 1, 2024, is when we need to open for the season," authority chair Carlos Beruff recently told DeAngelis Diamond and members of the airport staff.

Scott Beck of DeAngelis Diamond responded to the airport authority directive by saying that the deadline is achievable.

"We are exploring strategies now and ordering as many items early as we can," Scott said, adding that moving up the schedule is also dependent on material procurement and labor availability.

Authority member Doug Holder asked whether the airport could handle any extra costs as a result of speeding up construction phasing.

"I think we would be OK," Rick Piccolo, president and CEO of the airport, said of financing the expansion.

Authority members also learned that replacement of airport escalators will take about nines months to complete with a projected finish date of September 2023. When completed, there will be two down escalators and two up escalators.

Passenger traffic in 2022

Despite its growth, SRQ has not been immune to an industry slowdown caused by a nationwide pilot shortage, higher fuel costs and air traffic control staffing issues.

In the month of August, 236,799 passengers traveled through the airport, a 2.9% decrease compared to August 2021. Passengers traveling through the airport year-to date totaled 2,611,962, a 28.6% increase as compared to 2021 totals of 2,030,487 for the first eight months.

"As summer comes to an end, we continue to see a slight reduction in monthly passenger levels compared to last year. We expect this to change starting in October when the number of seats scheduled by airlines servicing SRQ begin to exceed 2021 levels," Rick Piccolo, the airport's president and CEO, said in a press release Monday.

"Another trend we are seeing is aircraft passenger load factors are higher this year compared to 2021. We expect this trend to remain as our community continues to rapidly grow and demand to use SRQ increases," Piccolo said.

New service coming to SRQ includes Allegiant Air starting nonstop service to Minneapolis, Minn., (MSP) beginning Oct. 6, Air Canada resuming seasonal nonstop service to Toronto, Canada (YYZ) beginning Oct. 30 and Breeze Airways starting nonstop service to White Plains, N.Y. (HPN) beginning Nov. 5.

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