Let's Hear it For Expandable Design & Long-Term Planning

When Tampa International Airport (TPA) opened in 1971, it was regarded by many as a state-of-the-art wonder, especially for a city of Tampa’s size at the time. It was the first airport in the world with a “people mover” system and automated baggage carousels; and it was designed so passengers would walk no more than 700 feet from parked car or curbside to plane, or from gate to gate. Its spoke-and-hub layout was, and still is, convenient for both planes and people.

Joe Lopano Joe Lopano, cheif executive officer of Tampa International Airport, previously worked at Dallas/Fort Worth International for 14 years as its executive vice president for marketing and terminal management. Overall, he has 22 years of airline and airport expertise.

But perhaps the most visionary aspect of the original design is that it was built to grow in phases, over many decades. I realized just how critical this would be when I became the airport’s CEO three years ago and was tasked with seeing TPA through its biggest expansion since 1971 — and currently one of the largest airport construction projects in the country.

Now serving nearly 17 million passengers annually, we predict a doubling of passenger growth over the next 20 years. Our strategy for handling this growth, as outlined in our 2012 Master Plan update, includes three phases. First, we plan to decongest our main terminal. Secondly, as passenger demand dictates, we will complete enabling projects to pave the way for expansion. And finally, we will add and
grow airsides.

In developing our current master plan, we remained true to the original principles of TPA’s groundbreaking design while doubling the capacity of the airport. We are also diversifying revenues through new concessions and real estate development, and preserving land on the airport’s 3,300-acre campus for even more future growth.

Previous master plans called for a whole new terminal on our north property, which planners had believed was necessary once we began serving 25 million annual passengers. We chose instead to build on the flexibility of the great design of our existing airport structure, devising a plan that allows us to expand the main terminal to accommodate a 20-year growth of up to 34.7 million passengers while leaving the north property available for later generations.

The latest plans call for expanding the main terminal onto decks that were built more than 40 years ago with just such expansion in mind. We will also build a consolidated rental car center connected to the main terminal by a people mover similar to the system that has connected the terminal to the airsides for decades. Eventually, when our passenger numbers require it, we will “plug in” a new airside, taking advantage of the airport’s highly flexible hub-and-spoke design. We are also in the process of redeveloping the airport’s concessions program, moving from a 43-year-old master concessionaire model to one that will allow for multiple operators, new concepts and a more efficient use of space in the expanded main terminal.

We know that a lot can happen in 20 years. Carrying out our construction projects in three phases allows us the flexibility we need to make the best decisions based on passenger demand and other factors over time, rather than build something we may not need for years or needed years ago. By continuing to analyze needs in the Tampa Bay area over time, we’re confident TPA’s Master Plan will create a facility that will be used and loved by passengers and visitors for the next 20 years and beyond.