Photo courtesy Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport

Passenger counts continue to fly high at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Fredrick Piccolo, president and CEO, said traffic was up 44 percent in 2019 over the past year. “And business continues to boom,” he said.

The growth can be credited to interest in carriers, which in turn have found success connecting more cities and passengers to the Sarasota-Bradenton area.

Piccolo said the airport two years ago served six airlines offering flights to 11 different destinations. Now, nine airlines boast service to 38 destinations.

Frontier Airlines and Sun Country have both started service in the Sarasota airport. And existing carriers like Allegiant Air expanded offerings, growing from service to three cities to 21. Meanwhile, American Airlines has enjoyed the second highest rate of raw growth at the airport, followed by Unites.

“Even our existing carreirs who have been with us have added to their existing service,” he said.

The growth has meant escalating traffic through the year. In December, always a big month for travel, traffic spiked about 53 percent at SRQ airport. Piccolo anticipates similar growth in January flights once those numbers are finalized and released.

That’s not all a windfall for the airport itself. While the new traffic means more revenue through parking, rental fees and sales at gift shops, on top of money from new airlines, maintenance and facility costs have gone up as well. The airport authority this year doubled its janitorial costs from $600,000 to $1.2 million to accommodate the mess left by half as many guests. Similarly, the airport needs more police and maintenance workers on the payroll.

But the growth remains a net positive. And it creates buzz within the industry.

“We doing fine and making a surplus,” Piccolo said, “and the addition revenue is poured back into capital projects.”

Photo courtesy Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport