St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport Director Lays Out Plan for Terminal Overhaul, $60 Million Garage and Growth

St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport is close to the limit of what its 1950s-era terminal can handle. Airport Director Mark Sprague told a Tampa Bay business audience this week that the airport plans to start building a parking garage of about $60 million in January and to keep going with a rescoped terminal modernization meant to eventually serve 4.5 million to 5 million passengers a year. The Pinellas County-owned airport, known as PIE, handles about 2.8 million passengers a year. Its current terminal was designed for about 3 million.

Sprague spoke Wednesday evening at a Florida Economic Club gathering at Voodoo Brewing Co. in St. Petersburg, according to the St. Pete Catalyst, whose report was republished by WUSF on Nov. 7. The club, founded in 2009, brings together business and community leaders from Pinellas, Hillsborough and Sarasota counties.

Projects at a glance

The airport's main projects, as described by Sprague and in earlier county presentations, are:

A terminal plan that changed course

The terminal project has already been redrawn once. The original expansion concept had a budget of $110 million, Sprague told Pinellas County commissioners at an August workshop, according to Spectrum News Bay News 9. As schematic designs developed, he said, the price rose above $200 million. The airport then moved from a large expansion to what officials call a modernization and renovation, at a revised cost of $145 million.

The revised plan includes a 40,000-square-foot elevated addition with four to five new jet bridges. It would replace the current arrangement in which a single gate door is used to board three airplanes. Renovations to the existing building listed at the August workshop include replacing sewer lines and part of the roof, modernizing restrooms, replacing two existing jet bridges, and redoing the baggage and ticket counter areas. FOX 13 reported that the plan also covers new flooring, seating and lighting in the hold rooms for Gates 2 through 6, a new security checkpoint, and work on sections of sewer pipe that date to the 1950s and 1960s.

Speaking Wednesday, Sprague said airport leaders had recently decided to rescope the large terminal project again, focusing on infrastructure work and conceptual designs for a terminal that could eventually handle 4.5 million to 5 million passengers, the Catalyst reported. Leaders are studying long-term options, including taxiways. Sprague said that if the current buildings cannot be kept, the airport will tear them down. The first phase after conceptual drawings would be the roughly 40,000-square-foot expansion with four jet bridges.

The airport's original terminal was built in 1957. In the near term, Sprague said, the work will target what he called inefficiencies, including seating, wayfinding signs, roofing and lighting.

Parking is the top complaint

The garage is the most immediate project. Sprague said this week that the airport has seen record-setting passenger growth for 10 to 15 years and that parking is a major complaint. The garage is planned next to the terminal, on the airport's Strawberry parking lot, with more than 2,000 spaces, according to the Catalyst and WUSF. PIE reached parking capacity during the July 4 holiday in 2025, WUSF reported in September.

The timeline has slipped somewhat. Late in 2025, officials said they expected the garage to open in late 2027. The schedule Sprague gave this week calls for construction to begin in January 2027 and wrap up by spring 2028.

Record growth, then a plateau

PIE handled 2,794,067 passengers in 2025, a 14% increase over 2024 and an all-time record, according to the airport's annual report. Sprague told FOX 13 in August that passenger traffic had grown more than 67% over the previous five years.

Growth has leveled off this year. The airport's monthly passenger reports show record months in January, February and May 2026, but a 4% drop in March compared with March 2025, and year-to-date traffic roughly even with 2025 through May.

Allegiant remains the anchor

Nearly all of that traffic comes from one airline. Sprague described Allegiant Air as essential to the airport's growth. On Sept. 10, Pinellas County commissioners unanimously approved a new five-year operating agreement with Allegiant that runs through September 2031. The county projects the deal will bring the airport about $22.8 million over its term, about 61% more than the roughly $14.2 million under the previous agreement, WUSF reported. Allegiant's landing fee will start at $1.43 per 1,000 pounds of aircraft weight in fiscal year 2027 and rise to $1.48 by 2031. Qualifying new routes can receive waived landing fees and cooperative marketing for up to two years.

The airport and Allegiant will mark 20 years of their partnership with an anniversary event on airport property on Nov. 16, from noon to 4 p.m.

No tax dollars, no debt

Pinellas County owns and operates PIE, but the airport receives no county tax money. Sprague said the airport must be self-sufficient, paying its way with user fees, airline charges, lease rentals and concessions, along with federal and state grants. Projects are fully funded before work begins. The $145 million terminal plan is to be paid for with airport reserves and money from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Florida Department of Transportation, and the airport will take on no debt, Commissioner Rene Flowers said at the August workshop.

Turning spare land into revenue

The airport covers about 2,000 acres, of which roughly 1,000 are actively used for operations, and it leases land to a range of tenants. Sprague said officials are planning for the former Airco golf course, a roughly 128-acre site. About 32 acres would go to aviation use, and another section could host non-aviation tenants such as business parks and hotels. The roughly 10-acre former Turtle Club site is also under review for its best use.

Who is leading the work

Sprague was named director in March by County Administrator Barry Burton after serving as deputy director and then interim director, Bay News 9 reported. He joined PIE in 2015 as deputy director and has about 25 years in aviation, including work as a pilot for Comair and Spirit Airlines and in operations at Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles International airports. He succeeded Tom Jewsbury, who retired in 2025.

What's next

Garage construction is scheduled to begin in January, with completion targeted for spring 2028. The terminal work still faces design and approval steps before construction, now projected to run from 2028 to 2032. For Pinellas travelers, that means several more years of a tight terminal and crowded lots before the main relief arrives. The more immediate fixes to seating, signs, roofing and lighting are planned in the meantime.