First park-and-ride lots coming to SRQ airport to handle record passenger traffic
The first park-and-ride lots are coming to Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, as officials scramble to accommodate record passenger traffic.
Travelers would park their cars at the proposed lots north and south of Dolphin Aviation, 8191 N. Tamiami Trail, and take a shuttle to the terminal.
The planned park-and-ride lots would mark a departure for SRQ, where short and long-term parking is within easy walking distance of the terminal.
Last week, the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority approved a $224,507 contract amendment with American Infrastructure Development of Tampa for engineering services to design the new parking lots.
AID had previously been awarded a contract for the design, permitting, bidding and and construction phase services for long-term, shade lot and valet drop-off area projects.
“The significant growth in passenger traffic has created high demand for vehicle parking. Currently the airport has approximately 2,000 paved parking spaces.
“Thanksgiving 2021 created a peak demand of approximately 3,500 spaces. To accommodate this demand, airport staff utilized various areas around the airport for overflow parking. Several of these overflow parking areas will not be available for Thanksgiving 2022,” the SRQ staff narrative said.
The proposed park-and ride locations provide an additional 1,400 parking spaces, said Rick Piccolo, the airport’s president and CEO.
One lot would be located south of the air traffic control tower and the other would be located north of Dolphin Aviation. Both lots would be designed to be revenue controlled, secure and with discounted rates.
These new lots will be designed, constructed and operational prior to Thanksgiving week 2022, Piccolo said.
A few years ago, SRQ had only six airlines and 10 nonstop destinations. With the arrival of low-cost carriers like Allegiant, Southwest and Frontier, there are now 10 airlines and 53 destinations, pushing airport officials into a hurry-up mode to keep pace with record numbers of travelers.
The 302,189 passengers that SRQ served in January could be surpassed in the peak months of March and April.
Allegiant Air will begin new nonstop service to Akron-Canton, Ohio, on March 3 and to Appleton, Wisc. on March 11.
