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New airline coming to St. Pete-Clearwater Airport

 
Published Jan. 10, 2015

CLEARWATER — St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport enjoyed its second-best passenger year ever in 2014. Airport director Noah Lagos is set Monday to reveal the identity of a new carrier that could help the airport do even better in 2015.

Lagos will make the announcement at a 2:30 p.m. news conference at PIE — the airport also goes by its three-letter designation — and will also reveal two new cities the new carrier will serve.

In 2014, PIE served 1,247,987 passengers, a leap of 23 percent or 230,938 more passengers from 2013.

The 2014 mark is also just 85,000 short of the airport's all-time record of 1.3 million passengers in 2004.

"It's all about demand for the tourist destination," Lagos said, "and it's all tied to the growth of Allegiant."

That's because Allegiant Air is PIE's dominant carrier. The low-cost airline served 35 cities in 2014, and that number is to grow by five in a matter of weeks: Baltimore-Washington (Hagerstown Regional Airport), Indianapolis, Omaha, Pittsburgh and Richmond, Va.

Monday's announcement notwithstanding, Lagos said he expects the airport to continue to add more flights to more destinations this year.

"Allegiant tells us that we're going to continue to grow," Lagos said, "that they still view us as an underserved market."

One sign of Allegiant's growing confidence in this market, Lagos said, is that the airline has been adding flights to medium-tier cities like Cincinnati in May and now Indianapolis and Pittsburgh this year. Those cities promise to add even bigger passenger numbers in 2015.

Aside from Allegiant, PIE also has Sunwing Airlines flying to three Canadian cities and Sun Country flying to Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Mississippi.

In 2013 and 2014 the airport surpassed 1 million passengers in back-to-back years for the first time in two decades. PIE last accomplished that feat in 1995-96.