Tampa International Airport is seeing strong passenger traffic after a busy March
Travelers waiting to go to a new destination
TAMPA, Fla. - According to Tampa International Airport, passenger traffic is still strong after a busy March spring break.
"Typically, we start to see a little bit of slowdown in April, May, and then by the time Memorial Day weekend comes, we start to see that surge in traffic again. But right now, we're not really seeing much slowdown," TPA spokesperson Emily Nipps said. "We're seeing that April is continuing to be very, very busy, just like March."
According to TPA, the airport saw record-breaking passenger numbers for several days in March. On Sunday, March 19, early data shows more than 90,000 passengers made their way through TPA, one of the airport's busiest days on record.
And so far, April 2023 is seeing 12 percent more traffic compared to April 2019, a record for the airport, Nipps said.
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"So we know this is going to likely be a record year," Nipps said.
Just consider this past weekend: Nipps told FOX 13 that between eighty and ninety thousand, passengers came through each day. The airport typically averages closer to seventy thousand daily passengers on a typical weekend.
But this past weekend was not a typical weekend.
Travelers waiting for their flights
"The whole flight though was just Swifties," Sydney Sutton of Raleigh, NC, said.
Taylor Swift fans from North Carolina to New York to Toronto arrived at TPA Monday morning for their flights back home.
And when FOX 13 asked them why they chose to attend Swift’s concert in Tampa instead of another city?
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"I picked it partially because my sister lives down here," Sutton said. "But also, I like this area better because why wouldn't you want to go to the beach?!"
Swift's concerts have come and gone, but take a quick look at the calendar: The Lightning have some home playoff games coming up.
"When our sports teams do well, we do see more travelers, especially when it's tournament time," Nipps said.
In addition, the airport said it could tell people are already getting ready for their summer vacations.