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Tampa International Airport

  • PAX: 22,127,518
  • IATA: TPA
  • ICAO: KTPA

Huge Increase in Travel from Midwest to Tampa Bay

As Americans have begun traveling again, the number of visitors to Tampa Bay from the U.S. Midwest has been skyrocketing. In the first quarter of 2021, Tampa Bay’s beaches in St. Pete/Clearwater saw an increase of more than 100 percent in the number of visitors from certain Midwestern cities compared to the same period in 2019, according to Visit St. Pete/Clearwater’s data partner Arrivalist. The data includes both fly and drive visitors.

Examples of Midwestern fly/drive visitor growth to Tampa Bay beaches

City

Percent Growth 1Q21 v 1Q19

Existing Tampa Bay Service

Des Moines

184%

G4 (PIE)

Flint/Saginaw

174%

G4 (PIE)

Appleton/Green Bay

160%

G4 (PIE)

Kansas City

119%

NK, WN (TPA)

G4 (PIE)

Minneapolis/St. Paul

117%

DL, F9, WN, NK, SY (TPA)

SY (PIE)

Cedar Rapids

108%

G4 (PIE)

Lansing

102%

UNSERVED

Milwaukee

101%

F9, WN, NK (TPA)

Indianapolis

93%

WN, NK (TPA)

G4 (PIE)PIE

Chicago

86%

MDW: WN (TPA)

ORD: AA, F9, WN, NK, UA (TPA)

Cincinnati

85%

DL, F9, WN (TPA)

G4 (PIE)

Detroit

78%

DL, WN, NK (TPA)

St. Louis

73%

WN, NK (TPA)

Madison

61%

UNSERVED

Recognizing the demand, Spirit, Breeze, Southwest and Frontier all recently launched or announced nonstop flights on routes they were not previously serving from various markets in the Midwest to TPA. 

Spirit

St. Louis (STL)

Milwaukee (MKE)

Kansas City (MCI)

Louisville (SDF)

Breeze

Akron/Canton (CAK)

Columbus (CMH)

Oklahoma City (OKC)

Tulsa (TUL)

Louisville (SDF)

Southwest

Chicago (ORD)

Omaha (OMA)

Oklahoma City (OKC)

Frontier

Cleveland (CLE)

Cincinnati (CVG)

And many airlines not only have restored pre-pandemic service levels to Midwestern markets, but also have now grown beyond 2019 frequencies on many existing Midwestern routes to TPA. Between March and November of 2021, TPA expects to see 2,200 more departures to the Midwest than the same period in 2019 – an average of 244 additional departures per month.