St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 27°54′36″N 082°41′15″W / 27.91, -82.6875

St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport

IATA: PIE – ICAO: KPIE – FAA: PIE
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Board of County Commissioners,
Pinellas County
Serves Tampa/St. Petersburg Metropolitan Area
Location St. Petersburg, Florida
Elevation AMSL 11 ft / 3 m
Website www.Fly2PIE.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
4/22 5,903 1,799 Asphalt
9/27 5,165 1,574 Asphalt
17L/35R 9,730 2,966 Asphalt
17R/35L 4,000 1,219 Asphalt
Statistics (2007)
Total passengers 747,369
Aircraft operations 187,978
Cargo tonnage 29,842
Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1] and airport website[2]
Benoist XIV flown by Tony Jannus, January 1, 1914
Benoist XIV flown by Tony Jannus, January 1, 1914

St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (IATA: PIE, ICAO: KPIE, FAA LID: PIE) is an airport located in unincorporated Pinellas County, Florida, six miles (10 km) north of St. Petersburg, serving St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and the surrounding Tampa Bay Area in the USA.

While most scheduled commercial airline traffic in the Tampa Bay Area uses Tampa International Airport (TPA, ten miles or 16 km to the east), St. Petersburg-Clearwater remains a destination airport for low-cost and charter carriers, notably several from Canada. St. Petersburg/Clearwater serves as a focus city for Las Vegas based carrier Allegiant Air The airport also serves as the gateway airport to Pinellas County.

Because of its lesser pace of operations, PIE is frequently used instead of TPA as a destination airport by pilots of private planes and executive jets for access to the bay area.

The airport uses "Pie In The Sky" as an advertising slogan in reference to its three-letter IATA code.

Contents

[edit] History

The airport is located on the west shoreline of Tampa Bay, six miles (10 km) north of St. Petersburg, Florida (the "birthplace of commercial air transportation"). Barely a decade after the pioneer flight of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the first tickets for airline travel were sold by the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line of Tony Jannus to fare-paying passengers. Using a Benoist XIV amphibious aircraft, the inaugural flight took place from a location near the downtown St. Petersburg Pier.[3] Mayor Abram C. Pheil of St. Petersburg and Mae Peabody of Dubuque, Iowa, were the first passengers, flying across the bay to Tampa and, according to a United Press account, reportedly reaching the maximum speed of 75 miles per hour during the flight. Other reports indicate that they reached an altitude of 50 feet (15 m).

This historic event marked the beginning of commercial air transportation anywhere in the world and is commemorated by a replica of the Benoist aircraft and a plaque at the airport terminal baggage claim area. Another replica is displayed at the St. Petersburg Museum of History adjacent to the Pier.

[edit] Construction and wartime

Construction of the airport at its present site started in March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the airport was acquired by the U.S. Army Air Force, which used it 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 at Pinellas Army Airfield (as it was known) for the duration of World War II. To commemorate the airport's vital role during that conflict, a plaque was dedicated at the airport terminal in 1994 by the P-51 fighter Pilots Association and Brigadier General James H. Howard, who was the only European Theater fighter pilot to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in WWII and later served as the last wartime base commander of Pinellas Army Airfield. A permanent exhibit honoring General Howard is located in the terminal.

FAA diagram of PIE
FAA diagram of PIE

[edit] Postwar operation

After WWII, the Airport property was returned to Pinellas County by the U.S. government to operate as a commercial airport. It was originally called Pinellas International Airport and given the IATA designation, PIE, which it still uses. In the 1950s, some airlines provided service to both PIE and TPA, such as Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines, and Northwest Airlines. With the advent of the Jet Age, the airport's runway was extended northward into Tampa Bay and the first commercial jet service to PIE was operated by Northwest.

However, the greatly increased seating capacities of the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, compared to the smaller propeller-driven DC-6 and DC-7, prompted the Civil Aeronautics Board to approve the consolidation of commercial airline service at TPA in the early 1960s. By 1964, Eastern was the last remaining air carrier at PIE when it terminated service that year. Until deregulation resulted in new airlines serving PIE in the 1980s, the airport was used by charters, private airplanes, and Coast Guard aircraft.

[edit] Current airfield and government facilities

Today, the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport is a 1,900-acre (769 ha) fully-certified facility with ILS-equipped 9,700-foot (3,000 m) runway and two 5,500-foot (1,700 m) runways. It is home of the busiest U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in the world. U.S. Customs, FAA-operated control tower, the Central Florida Region Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS), the busiest in the United States, and the St. Petersburg VORTAC for airway navigation are also important federal government services at the airport.

Along with scheduled commercial airlines, United Parcel Service, Air Cargo, and General/Corporate Aviation are also major activities. The entire tract of the airport is designated as a Foreign Trade Zone and a large Airport Industrial Park developed in the 1980s is a major center of commerce. The airport and its tenants employ over 3,000 people and have 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.

Aerial view, Runway 27
Aerial view, Runway 27

[edit] Recent developments

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 seasonally 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.

Also, the airport plans to spend $9.5 million for renovations, including, among other things, expanding the gate sizes, new plumbing, and building loading bridges, as the current system requires all passengers to walk across the tarmac to the gate. The renovations are planned to be completed by the end of 2009.[4]

USA3000 Airlines announced in May 2008 its discontinuation of all service to the Pinellas County airport effective in August 2008.[5] The airline blamed the escalating price of jet fuel for the decision to end its 21 weekly flights to the airport.[5] USA 3000 carried 300,000 passengers at the airport in 2007, representing 30 percent of the airport's total airline passenger volume.[5]

[edit] Aircraft operations

For the 12-month period ending July 30, 2007, the airport had 187,978 aircraft operations, an average of 515 per day: 84% general aviation, 8% military, 5% scheduled commercial and 3% air taxi. At that time there were 293 aircraft based at this airport: 61% single-engine, 11% multi-engine, 12% jet, 9% helicopter and 8% military.[1]

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Domestic destinations served fromSt. Petersburg International Airport(as of June 2008)
Domestic destinations served from
St. Petersburg International Airport
(as of June 2008)
International destinations served fromSt. Petersburg International Airport(as of June 2008)
International destinations served from
St. Petersburg International Airport
(as of June 2008)

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

[edit] Passenger airlines

  • Allegiant Air Gates 9 - 12 (Allentown/Bethlehem, Chattanooga, Chicago/Rockford, Des Moines, Fort Wayne, Greensboro, Greenville (SC), Huntington, Knoxville, Lansing, Peoria, Roanoke, South Bend, Springfield/Branson, Toledo)
  • CanJet Gate 6 (Halifax, Moncton, Toronto-Pearson) [seasonal]
  • SeaCoast Airlines (Key West, Marathon) [scheduled charters]
  • Sun Country Airlines Gate 7 (Minneapolis/St. Paul) [seasonal]
  • Sunwing Airlines (Toronto-Pearson)
  • USA3000 Airlines Gates 2 - 5 (Chicago-O'Hare [ends August 17], Cleveland [ends August 17], Detroit [ends August 16], Philadelphia [ends August 18], Pittsburgh [ends August 17], St. Louis [ends August 17])

[edit] Cargo airlines

[edit] See Also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b FAA Airport Master Record for PIE (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2007-12-20
  2. ^ St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (PIE) Fact Sheet 2008, published 2008.
  3. ^ Tony Jannus —An Enduring Legacy of Aviation. Tony Jannus Distinguished Aviation Society. Retrieved on 2008-04-25.
  4. ^ 'Other' airport gets facelift, St. Petersburg Times, June 26, 2007.
  5. ^ a b c Steve Huettel. "Airline to end local service", St. Petersburg Times, 2008-05-15, p. D1. 
  • Bickel, Karl A. - The Mangrove Coast, 1942 by Coward McCann, Inc., Fourth Edition in 1989 by Omni Print Media, Inc., p.265

[edit] External links

Languages