International airlines are preparing to fly out of Tampa to popular destinations, including London and Frankfurt, if travel restrictions are lifted by the fall.
British Airways, Lufthansa and others have rescheduled international flights to and from Tampa this year.
"Restrictions remain in place, both here in the U.S. and nations around the world. I wanted to highlight the international carriers. They have published time and again reschedule dates for Tampa," Vice President of Airport Operations and Customer Service Chris Minner said during the airport's September meeting.
He showed rescheduled flights as of Wednesday, which include:
- Air Canada: TPA to Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Ottawa in various times in October and December
- British Airways: TPA to London, Oct. 25
- Cayman Airways: TPA to Grand Cayman, Nov. 1
- Copa Airlines: TPA to Panama City, Nov. 21
- Edelweiss Air: Zurich, Switzerland, Oct. 5
- Lufthansa: Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 25
- Southwest Airlines: Havana, Cuba, Oct. 8
- WestJet Airlines: Toronto, Canada, Oct. 5 and St. John's, Canada, March 7, 2021
International traffic decreased by 99.9 percent year-over-year for July. However, there were 97 international passengers in July, which were all on Silver Airways nonstop to Nassua in the Bahamas. Because of travel restrictions placed by the Bahamian government, flights were suspended. Silver is trying to get these flights restarted, Minner said.
He also showed a map of domestic routes that were affected. The red dots are current nonstop destinations TPA has while the white dots show what has been suspended.
The airport also presented different data points gathered by surveys. One year ago, 37 percent of the airport's passengers were Tampa Bay originators and 63 percent were outside visitors. This year, it's 44 percent of local originating Tampa passengers versus 56 percent outside visitors meaning there's a trend of people traveling with disposable income, Minner said.
In 2019, 40 percent of TPA's passengers were traveling for business. This year, it's 30 percent, reflecting what TPA has been hearing from airlines.
Many international flights were in demand for Tampa businesspeople who wanted more connections to Europe.
