Tampa Airport's first new airside terminal gets final approval

Construction will start soon on Airside D, the first new airside terminal at Tampa International Airport in 17 years.

Driving the news: The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority approved the airport's capital and operating budget for FY2023, and it includes the new $787.4 million terminal.

Details: The project will add 16 gates with capacity to accommodate 13 million more passengers at TPA by 2037.

• The new terminal will feature lots of glass, plus bright, open spaces, an outdoor terrace, and furnishings that … border on luxurious. (See it for yourself.)

The big picture: The project is the final part of a three-phase master plan for the airport's ambitious, yearslong expansion.

• Phases 1 and 2 included adding the Rental Car Center, SkyConnect Automated People Mover, and Blue Express Curbsides for passengers without luggage, among other projects.

Flashback: Heralded as the airport of the future, TPA opened in 1971 with a hub and spoke design that used trams to shuttle passengers from a central ticketing and baggage terminal to outlying gates.

• Airside D is the newest terminal addition since Airside C — aka the Southwest terminal — added 16 gates at a cost of $135 million in 2005.

The rub: The project — paid for through airport-issued bonds and state and federal grants — was stalled during the pandemic, and inflation has pushed cost estimates up by almost $100 million, per the Tampa Bay Business Journal.