St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport

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St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport

IATA: PIE - ICAO: KPIE
Summary
Airport type		public
Serves		Saint Petersburg, Florida
Elevation AMSL		10 ft (3.0 m)
Coordinates		27°54′38″N, 82°41′14″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
17L/35R	9,700	2,682	Paved
4/22	5,500	1,676	Paved
9/27	5,165	1,574	Paved
17R/35L	4,000	1,219	Paved

Saint Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (IATA: PIE, ICAO: KPIE) is an airport in Pinellas County, Florida, which serves Saint Petersburg and Clearwater, Florida in the USA.

While most scheduled commercial airline traffic in the Tampa Bay Area tends to fly in and out of Tampa International Airport (TIA), St. Petersburg-Clearwater remains a destination airport for low-cost and charter carriers, notably several from Canada. The airport also serves as the gateway airport to Pinellas County.

Because of its lower pace of operations, PIE is favored over TIA as a destination by pilots of private planes and executive jets for access to the bay area.

1 History
2 Airlines and destinations
- 2.1 Terminal 1
3 Cargo carriers
4 External links
5 references

[edit] History

St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport is located on the west shoreline of Tampa Bay north of Saint Petersburg, the birthplace of commercial air transportation. Barely a decade after the pioneer flight of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, the first tickets for air travel were sold by the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line of Tony Jannus to fare-paying passengers.

Benoist seaplane of Tony Jannus that made the historic first commercial airline flight on January 1, 1914

The mayor of Saint Petersburg, Abram C. Pheil, and Mae Peabody, of Dubuque, Iowa, were the first passengers on the airline, flying across the bay to Tampa and, according to Karl Bickel of United Press, reportedly reaching the maximum speed of 75 miles per hour during the flight. Other reports indicate that they reached the altitude of fifty feet. This historic event on January 1, 1914, marked the beginning of commercial air transportation anywhere in the world and is commemorated by a plaque at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport terminal building. A replica of the Benoist Model 14 amphibious airplane flown from Gadsden Point on the inaugural flight is displayed at the airport.

Construction of the airport at its present site started in March 1941. After Pearl Harbor, the airport, known as Pinellas Army Airfield, was used as a military flight-training base. The 304th Fighter Squadron, a combat training unit of the 337th Fighter Group (Third Army Air Force), based P-40s and, later, P-51s here for the duration of World War II. A plaque dedicated at the airport terminal in 1994 by the P-51 fighter Pilots Association and Brigadier General James H. Howard, the only European Theater fighter pilot to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in WWII, who was the last wartime base commander of Pinellas Army Airfield, commemorates the airport's vital role during the war. A permanent exhibit honoring General Howard is located in the terminal.

After WWII, the Airport property was given to Pinellas County by the U.S. government to operate as a commercial airport. It was originally called the Pinellas International Airport and given the airport call letters, PIE.

Today, the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport is a 2,000 acre, fully-certified facility with ILS-equipped 8,500-foot runway and two 5,500-foot runways. It is home of the busiest Coast Guard Air Station in the world. U.S. Customs, FAA-operated control tower, and the Central Florida Region Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS), the busiest in the U.S., are also important federal government services at the airport along with the Airport Industrial Park. The entire 2000-acre tract of the airport is designated as a foreign trade zone.

United Parcel Service, Air Cargo, and General/Corporate Aviation are also major activities. The airport employs over 3,000 people and has an economic benefit of more than $400 million yearly to the Tampa Bay area. The airport includes a 24-hour airport rescue and fire-fighting (ARFF) department (Index C), facilities, operations, engineering, and administrative personnel.

On August 11, 2006, Sun Country Airlines announced they would begin seasonal service to St. Petersburg from Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport on November 20, 2006. Later that month, on August 25, 2006, Sunwing Airlines announced they would begin serving St. Petersburg from Toronto Pearson International Airport on December 15, 2006.

In September 2006, Allegiant Air announced significant scheduled service from St. Petersburg-Clearwater to destinations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Later that month, SkyValue announced they would begin serving St. Petersburg from Gary/Chicago International Airport, on December 16, 2006.

On November 13, 2006, CanJet Airlines also announced they would serve St. Petersburg-Clearwater internationally from Canada's Halifax International Airport beginning February 3, 2007, and also from Canada's Moncton International Airport beginning February 8, 2007.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

FAA diagram of PIE

[edit] Terminal 1

St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport has one Terminal and thirteen Gates: 1 - 12, and 14.

Due to triskaidekaphobia, there is no gate assigned as 13.

Allegiant Air Gates 9, 10 & 11 (Allentown/Bethlehem, Chattanooga, Chicago/Rockford, Des Moines [begins May 23, 2007], Fort Wayne, Greensboro [begins May 24, 2007], Greenville/Spartanburg (SC), Knoxville, Lansing, Peoria, Roanoke, South Bend, Springfield/Branson, Toledo)
CanJet Gate 6 (Halifax, Moncton)
SeaCoast Airlines (Key West, Marathon) [scheduled charters]
SkyValue Gate 12
- SkyValue operated by Xtra Airways (Gary/Chicago [direct], Orlando)
Sun Country Airlines Gate 7 (Minneapolis/St. Paul [seasonal])
Sunwing Airlines (Toronto-Pearson)
USA 3000 Airlines Gates 2, 3, 4 & 5 (Chicago-O'Hare, Cleveland, Detroit, Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis)