Tampa Bay is no stranger to aviation. Tony Janus, the first commercial airline pilot, flew the inaugural flight from St. Petersburg to Tampa.
Tampa International Airport’s history spans back to the early 1920s. John Drew, a contractor and developer, bought land just west of Tampa’s downtown to build a private landing strip for warplanes. When the airstrip was completed in 1928, the US government started leasing the area to the already completed MacDill Army Airfield, as the United States was in the midst of the world wars.
After the United States entered World War II, Drew Field hosted more than 25,000 military personnel. A wide range of warplanes and aircraft also flew out of Drew Field during the war, such as B-34 bombers and P-37 Thunderbolts. Another operation out of the airstrip led an anti-submarine unit to the Gulf of Mexico to scrounge for Nazi U-boats.
In 1946, Drew Field closed as World War Il ended. For the next four years, a commercial airport was in the works. When Tampa International Airport opened in 1950, there was only one original terminal. At that time, Trans Canada International Airlines was the only airline that conducted international flights to the airport.
By 1952, a second terminal had opened, now serving more airlines. By the late 1950s, the Civil Aeronautics Board had given four more airlines Capital, Delta, Northeast, and Trans World authority to fly into the airport. By 1960, the airport was serving more than one million passengers a year.
Later in the 1960s, Tampa’s Aviation Authority utilized the new airside-landside layout, the first of its kind in the world. This layout situated a terminal at the center of the airport, with smaller terminals branching out towards the tarmac.
Construction on the newly renovated airport ended in April 1971. Now, the airport had up to five new smaller terminals that branch out from the main. The new terminal opened to traffic on April 15, 1971. At this point, the airport had expanded its services to even more airlines. Two of them, Northwest and National Airlines, even introduced new aircraft types-the McDonnell Douglas and the Boeing 747. In 1972, National Airlines also introduced the L-1011 Lockheed Tristar. In 1977, National Airlines conducted the first trans-Atlantic flight out of Tampa International Airport: a flight to Amsterdam, Netherlands.
In the following two decades, Tampa International Airport saw many changes. By 1987, the airport had finished constructing Airside F. But in 1991, Airside B was shut down as Eastern Airlines stopped its services. As a result, Airside A opened four years later. In 1996, Airsides C was remodeled and expanded, opening in 2005. In the same year, a mass parking garage was completed, allowing up to 5,600 cars to be parked at once. In 2007, the last original airside, Airside D, was demolished as it had become outdated. The new Airside D is set to open in 2028.
In 2008, Condé Nast Travel (a travel blog) recognized Tampa International Airport’s drastic changes and ranked it the second-best airport in the world. The airport has also been consistently ranked among the top airports in the United States by many other surveys as well, with some including JD Power and Associates (an intelligence company) and CNN (a news site).
In 2013, the airport announced a plan to construct an automated train system to transport people from the main terminal to their designated terminal. This train system, called the SkyConnect, runs on a two kilometer circular track situated around the main terminal, transporting up to 2,500 passengers per hour.
In 2022, a 21-foot flamingo nicknamed Phoebe was put in the main terminal at the airport when airport officials chose Matthew Mazzotta’s design out of 734 proposals from around the world.
The flamingo is also in a lead spot to earn an international award for public art projects around the globe.
In 2024, plans were made to construct a new Airside D. The new airside will host up to 16 gates and two airline lounges. This new plan will help the airport handle up to 35 million passengers by 2037, when the airside is set to open.