BRADENTON, Fla. — Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport has seen growth in passenger numbers with January alone seeing more than 300,000 travelers, according to airport officials.
Data from the airport also shows SRQ's passenger traffic was up 155-percent with more than 3 million passengers in 2021. That's 1 million more fliers than its previous record of just over 2 million set in 1990.
"It was quite a year and we were probably the fastest growing airport in the world - certainly in the country," said Rick Piccolo, CEO, Sarasota-Bradenton Airport (SRQ).
The growth has been seen as a welcomed development but it has also brought challenges with it. Airport leaders are continuing to work on solutions to address those problems.
Outside the airport, main parking lots are consistently full and cars are crowding the curbs at both arrival and departure doors. While inside SRQ's doors, longer TSA lines are forming due to a trickle-down effect of the recent traveler surplus.
"Even picking people up, I did that last weekend, and I couldn't even find a place to park," said Denise Bell of Ohio. Bell lives on Anna Maria Island during the winter.
"The cell phone lot is full too, but that's good because we have more airlines here and I know that's a good thing because we get tired of driving up to Tampa and St. Pete. It's a hassle to drive from Anna Maria Island," Bell said
"I'm always trying to get there two hours early because I know how things can happen because it's happened to me before. One time they closed the gate while I was trying to get to it," said Fred Johnson of Anchorage Alaska. For the past 16 years, Johnson has spent the winter months in Sarasota County.
Along with more airline carriers, a total of 10 serving 53 destinations, the airport is physically expanding its infrastructure.
"What we are going through now is a program to build another five gates at the airport, that's going to take 18 to 24 months and it's in the design phase now," Piccolo said.
New park and ride lots with 1,400 parking spots and a new ground transportation center are also in the works. The airport's CEO says the lots will be ready before the Thanksgiving holiday travel season.
"While the traffic increases have been great it presents some very unique challenges in that rapid growth. It has tremendous economic benefit, a lot of jobs are created from that and then on top of that it makes it much more convenient and cheaper for people to fly," he said.
The boost in air travel is coming with challenges, including more arrests of unruly passengers upon arrival.
"We normally would only have a couple of arrests a year and now we're seeing 33 and over 100 calls for disorderly conduct," Piccolo said.
Piccolo adds that many of those incidents were related to people not wanting to follow mask guidelines and some escalated into assaults on airline staff and law enforcement officers.
The airport has also put a request into TSA for more staff and a new contractor over long lines at the screening gate.
"We have had some long lines and the contractor has not been able to recruit the people and so we have asked TSA to come in here and take over the security checkpoint and then look to see if a new contractor is appropriate for the checkpoint," Piccolo said.
"We've always been a very convenient airport to go through and we just want to maintain that level of convenience," he added.
Airport authorities are waiting for a response from TSA on their request for more staff.