Everything about St Petersburg-clearwater International Airport totally explained
St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport is an
airport located in unincorporated
Pinellas County, Florida, six miles (10 km) north of
St. Petersburg, serving St. Petersburg,
Clearwater, and the surrounding
Tampa Bay Area in the
USA.
While most scheduled commercial airline traffic in the Tampa Bay Area uses
Tampa International Airport (TPA, ten miles or 16 km to the east), St. Petersburg-Clearwater remains a destination airport for low-cost and charter carriers, notably several from Canada. St. Petersburg/Clearwater serves as a focus city for Las Vegas based carrier
Allegiant Air The airport also serves as the gateway airport to Pinellas County.
Because of its lesser pace of operations, PIE is frequently used instead of TPA as a destination airport by pilots of private planes and executive jets for access to the bay area.
The airport uses "
Pie In The Sky" as an
advertising slogan in reference to its three-letter IATA code.
History
The airport is located on the west shoreline of
Tampa Bay, six miles north of
St. Petersburg, Florida (the "birthplace of commercial air transportation"). Barely a decade after the pioneer flight of the
Wright brothers at
Kitty Hawk in 1903, the first tickets for
airline travel were sold by the
St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line of
Tony Jannus to fare-paying passengers. Using a
Benoist XIV amphibious aircraft, the inaugural flight took place from a location near the downtown
St. Petersburg Pier. Mayor Abram C. Pheil of St. Petersburg and Mae Peabody of Dubuque, Iowa, were the first passengers, flying across the bay to
Tampa and, according to a
United Press account, reportedly reaching the maximum speed of 75 miles per hour during the flight. Other reports indicate that they reached an
altitude of .
This historic event marked the beginning of commercial air transportation anywhere in the world and is commemorated by a replica of the Benoist aircraft and a plaque at the airport terminal baggage claim area. Another replica is displayed at the St. Petersburg Museum of History adjacent to the Pier.
Construction and wartime
Construction of the airport at its present site started in March 1941. After the
attack on Pearl Harbor, the airport was acquired by the
U.S. Army Air Force, which used it as a military flight-training base. The 304th Fighter Squadron, a combat training unit of the 337th Fighter Group (Third Army Air Force), based P-40s and, later, P-51s at Pinellas Army Airfield (as it was known) for the duration of
World War II. To commemorate the airport's vital role during that conflict, a plaque was dedicated at the airport terminal in 1994 by the P-51 fighter Pilots Association and Brigadier General James H. Howard, who was the only European Theater fighter pilot to be awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor in WWII and later served as the last wartime base commander of Pinellas Army Airfield. A permanent exhibit honoring General Howard is located in the terminal.
Postwar operation
After WWII, the Airport property was returned to Pinellas County by the U.S. government to operate as a commercial airport. It was originally called Pinellas International Airport and given the IATA designation, PIE, which it still uses. In the 1950s, some airlines provided service to both PIE and TPA, such as
Delta Air Lines,
Eastern Air Lines, and
Northwest Airlines. With the advent of the
Jet Age, the airport's runway was extended northward into Tampa Bay and the first commercial jet service to PIE was operated by Northwest.
However, the greatly increased seating capacities of the
Boeing 707 and
Douglas DC-8, compared to the smaller propeller-driven
DC-6 and
DC-7, prompted the
Civil Aeronautics Board to approve the consolidation of commercial airline service at TPA in the early 1960s. By 1964, Eastern was the last remaining air carrier at PIE when it terminated service that year. Until deregulation resulted in new airlines serving PIE in the 1980s, the airport was used by charters, private airplanes, and
Coast Guard aircraft.
Current airfield and government facilities
Today, the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport is a fully-certified facility with
ILS-equipped runway and two runways. It is home of the busiest
U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in the world.
U.S. Customs,
FAA-operated control tower, the Central Florida Region
Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS), the busiest in the United States, and the St. Petersburg
VORTAC for airway navigation are also important federal government services at the airport.
Along with scheduled commercial airlines,
United Parcel Service, Air Cargo, and General/Corporate Aviation are also major activities. The entire tract of the airport is designated as a
Foreign Trade Zone and a large Airport Industrial Park developed in the 1980s is a major center of commerce. The airport and its tenants employ over 3,000 people and have an economic benefit of more than $400 million yearly to the Tampa Bay area.
The airport includes a 24-hour airport rescue and fire-fighting (
ARFF) department (Index C), facilities, operations, engineering, and administrative personnel.
Recent developments
On
August 11,
2006,
Sun Country Airlines announced they'd begin seasonal service to St. Petersburg from
Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport on
November 20 2006. Later that month, on
August 25 2006,
Sunwing Airlines announced they'd begin serving St. Petersburg from
Toronto Pearson International Airport on
December 15 2006.
In September 2006,
Allegiant Air announced significant scheduled service from St. Petersburg-Clearwater to destinations in
Illinois,
Indiana,
Michigan,
Missouri,
New York,
Pennsylvania,
South Carolina,
Tennessee, and
Virginia. Later that month,
SkyValue announced they'd begin serving St. Petersburg seasonally from
Gary/Chicago International Airport, on
December 16 2006. On
November 13 2006, CanJet Airlines also announced they'd serve St. Petersburg-Clearwater internationally from Canada's
Halifax International Airport beginning
February 3 2007, and also from Canada's
Moncton International Airport beginning
February 8 2007.
Also, the airport plans to spend
$9.5 million for renovations, including, among other things, expanding the gate sizes, new plumbing, and building
loading bridges, as the current system requires all passengers to walk across the
tarmac to the gate. The renovations are planned to be completed by the end of 2009.
USA3000 Airlines announced in May 2008 its discontinuation of all service to the Pinellas County airport effective in August 2008. The airline blamed the escalating price of jet fuel for the decision to end its 21 weekly flights to the airport.
USA 3000 carried 300,000 passengers at the airport in 2007, representing 30 percent of the airport's total airline passenger volume.
Aircraft operations
For the 12-month period ending
July 30,
2007, the airport had 187,978 aircraft operations, an average of 515 per day: 84%
general aviation, 8%
military, 5%
scheduled commercial and 3%
air taxi. At that time there were 293 aircraft based at this airport:
61% single-
engine, 11% multi-engine, 12%
jet, 9%
helicopter and 8%
military.
Airlines and destinations
St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport has one Terminal and thirteen Gates: 1 - 12, and 14
Passenger airlines
- Allegiant Air Gates 9 - 12 (Allentown/Bethlehem, Chattanooga, Chicago/Rockford, Des Moines, Fort Wayne, Greensboro, Greenville (SC), Huntington, Knoxville, Lansing, Peoria, Roanoke, South Bend, Springfield/Branson, Toledo)
- CanJet Gate 6 (Halifax, Moncton, Toronto-Pearson) [seasonal]
- DayJet (nonstop service to Jacksonville, Lakeland, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Gainesville, Boca Raton, Opa-Locka/Miami Dade County, Naples, Sarasota/Bradenton, Savannah, Macon, and Montgomery with more nonstop cities being added)
- Myrtle Beach Direct Air Gate 12
- SeaCoast Airlines (Key West, Marathon) [scheduledcharters]
- Sun Country Airlines Gate 7 (Minneapolis/St. Paul) [seasonal]
- Sunwing Airlines (Toronto-Pearson)
- USA3000 Airlines Gates 2 - 5 (Chicago-O'Hare [endsAugust 17], Cleveland [endsAugust 17], Detroit [endsAugust 16], Philadelphia [endsAugust 18], Pittsburgh [endsAugust 17], St. Louis [endsAugust 17])
Cargo airlines
DHL Aviation
United Parcel Service (UPS)Further Information
Get more info on 'St Petersburg-clearwater International Airport'.
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