Tampa Airport's first new airside terminal gets final approval
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The new terminal. Rendering: Courtesy of Tampa International Airport
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.
