The administration of the Tampa International Airport announced that all commercial flights will be suspended starting at 0:01 on this Tuesday, August 29, due to the passage of the tropical storm Idalia.
The reopening will be estimated later after assessing the damages, but they anticipate it might occur during Thursday morning.
The closure, authorities indicated in a statement, will allow the airport and the various stakeholders to prepare the ground and terminals by carrying out tasks such as securing boarding bridges, ground equipment, and parked aircraft prior to Idalia’s impact as a hurricane on Wednesday morning.
They also clarify that some cargo flights and private aircraft may continue to operate during the early hours, but by 7:00 AM on Tuesday, all air activity will cease.
The passenger terminal will be closed to all passengers as it is not prepared to function as a shelter during a hurricane.
According to data obtained by Aviacionline through Cirium, for this Tuesday, the Tampa airport had scheduled 412 commercial flights, and another 408 on Wednesday, so more than 100,000 passengers would be affected by the cancellations. Of course, if the closure extends beyond Thursday, the number will increase.
Flights between Tampa and Latin America
Of that total of flights canceled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Tampa, 36 are from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Currently, Tampa is connected with the region through flights from Silver Airways (Nassau and Marsh Harbour), JetBlue (San Juan-PR, Cancún, and Aguadilla), Copa Airlines (Panama), Frontier Airlines (San Juan-PR, Santo Domingo, Punta Cana, Montego Bay, Cancún, and Aguadilla), Cayman Airlines (Grand Cayman), Spirit Airlines (San Juan-PR) and Southwest Airlines (San Juan-PR and Havana).
This translates into an average weekly offering of 180 flights and 15,070 seats according to data observed through Cirium.
