Construction of new Airside D delayed due to COVID-19

The impacts of COVID-19 can be felt throughout the travel and tourism industry – and Tampa International Airport is no exception.

As part of an effort to mitigate these effects, the Airport on Thursday presented a plan to defer or delete roughly $900 million in projects over the next four to five years.

Of those projects, the most significant is the delayed construction of Airside D, which is the final phase of our Master Plan. The $690-million, 16-gate terminal for both domestic and international flights was originally scheduled to begin the design phase in March 2021 and be completed in 2024. Airside D will allow TPA to serve more than 34 million passengers annually.

TPA served more than 22 million passengers in 2019.

The dramatic reduction in passenger volume resulting from the COVID-19 crisis gives the Airport an opportunity to push back this project. The new plan calls for revisiting TPA’s passenger forecast in 2021, updating the Master Plan in 2022 and deferring the start of construction to 2025.

TPA’s three-phase Master Plan was designed to give the Airport the ability to build as passenger demand dictates, moving the project forward or backwards as needed, to adjust to unforeseen circumstances.

“It was a smart approach that is now serving us well as we recalibrate our budget and our expectations for the next few years,” said Airport CEO Joe Lopano. “We will very much see a need for Airside D in our future and we’re thankful we have the flexibility to build it when the time is right.”