Building your future airport, today

In late 2011, Tampa International Airport officials began updating the Master Plan for the Airport’s 3,300-acre campus. The final plan, approved in 2013, allows the Airport to accommodate up to 34 million passengers each year, and is divided into three distinct phases: Decongestion, enabling and expansion. It allows a “build as demand dictates” approach to growth, with phases based on passenger volume.

The first phase, which was substantially completed in 2018, helps decongest the curbsides, roads and Main Terminal. 

Phase 2, which broke ground in 2019, includes a curbside expansion and 35-acre commercial development around the Rental Car Center, dubbed the SkyCenter Development Area. The initial development includes a nine story office building, known as SkyCenter One, a new commercial curb and an atrium that connects the development area to the SkyConnect station at the Rental Car Center. Future plans call for a convenience store with gas station and a new hotel. The curbside expansion includes 16 new express lanes exclusively for passengers without checked luggage. The Blue Express Curbsides opened to the public in November of 2021. The Red Express lanes are expected to be completed in 2025. 

Phase 3 enables further growth at Tampa International Airport and calls for the construction of a new 16-gate terminal- Airside D. The $787 million project received approval from the Aviation Authority’s Board of Directors in September 2022. Construction is set to start in 2024 and take three years to complete.

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