TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa International Airport officials are warning people that the airport will break records over the 4th of July holiday.
“We’re already seeing higher passenger numbers than what we saw back in 2019, which was our previous peak before the pandemic,” said Beau Zimmer, Communications Manager at TPA.
Officials expect to see anywhere from 70,000-90,000 passengers a day traveling through TPA.
“It’s a noticeable change. As you look around the terminal, you’ll see more people— in our rental car center, in our parking garages, and throughout the airport,” said Zimmer.
TSA is estimated to screen 17.7 million passengers from June 29-July 5. The peak travel day of the holiday weekend is expected to be Friday.
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With more people in the sky comes more opportunities for cancellations.
It’s something many travelers have experienced as thousands of flights nationwide were canceled or delayed this week.
“Coming into Tampa, my flight got delayed 30 minutes. Now flying back home, it got canceled last night, and I am on standby right now,” said passenger Mary Guillen.
Officials said storms in the northeast were mostly to blame for all the airline disruptions.
“Some of the big airports like Newark, Boston, LaGuardia, all had ground stops for short periods of time. That caused major backups that ended up impacting us in Tampa even though the weather was good here,” said Zimmer.
Overall though, TPA officials told ABC Action News that they’ve seen a 200% improvement in delays and cancellations from last year.
“Storms are still going to cause disruptions, but we’re hoping because staffing levels are higher than they were last year, we’re hoping we don’t see the kind of impacts that we saw last year,” said TPA Spokesperson Emily Nipps.
Airport employees and TSA staff are preparing to see more passengers than they’ve ever had.
They’re encouraging anyone traveling to get to the airport early and make sure to book parking online to guarantee a spot because parking garages are already filling up.
“People are so used to the convenience of this airport. They’re used to being able to move through this airport very quickly. But as we get into some of these peak days of summer, you want to give yourself some extra time,” said Zimmer.
“If you use the express lanes, those are less crowded. You get in, you get out,” he added.
