Piccolo to SRQ advisory board: No new domestic service likely until spring

Sarasota Bradenton International Airport executives don’t expect to see any additional domestic service with Elite Airways added until spring at the earliest.

SRQ President and CEO Fredrick “Rick” Piccolo updated members of the airport’s Advisory Commission on Wednesday about new air service and continuing capital improvement projects.

He and senior vice president and chief operating officer Mark Stuckey said they spoke with Elite Airways President John Pearsall on Tuesday about potential additions to its Sarasota service lineup.

“If they announce service, we wouldn’t expect a start date for at least 90 days,” Stuckey said in an interview with the Bradenton Herald. “They need time to market and advertise the new service. Right now, there is no one city they’ve decided on.”

Piccolo and Stuckey are also setting their sights beyond the domestic horizon. With the recent completion of a $3 million expansion to the airport’s customs area, SRQ can now process up to 300 passengers at peak hour operation, meaning the airport can get international travelers through customs in an hour. Before the renovation, the same number of passengers would take two hours. The expansion to SRQ’s customs facility is a boon for business with international airlines, Stuckey said.

The airport also had two studies conducted to rate the runways’ pavement strength last year. SRQ’s pavement strength was re-classified as stronger and capable of handling more weight, so the airport can now accommodate jets typically used in international travel without requiring a waiver. The prior classification of pavement strength wasn’t a safety issue, Stuckey said, but the waivers limited flights to a certain number of landings per week and made for an additional step in an airline’s process when adding flights.

This year’s trip to the World Travel Market in London was one of the most successful in Visit Sarasota County executive director Virginia Haley’s recent memory.

“We have never had a World Travel Market in London with as many meetings with air carriers as we had this year,” Haley said Wednesday.

Haley traveled to London in early November with Stuckey and Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Elliott Falcione to market the Bradenton-Sarasota area to tour operators and airlines.

In a previous interview with the Herald, Falcione said he left the World Travel Market feeling optimistic about SRQ’s potential for landing flights with an international carrier.

“I felt really, really good that there are international airlines that have a high interest in looking at the west coast of Florida for flights,” Falcione said. “They believe in Florida as a great destination to provide service to. The Sarasota-Bradenton region is resonating more and more in markets like the UK.”

Based on visitor profile data, Stuckey and the tourism bureaus spent most of their time in London talking with airlines that service the United Kingdom and Germany.

“That’s where we know the service is going to go,” Stuckey said. “It makes sense and those are the carriers that want to talk with us.”

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Piccolo to SRQ advisory board: No new domestic service likely until spring."