St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport

St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport
St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport
St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport Logo.svg
St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport FL 31 Dec 2008.jpg
IATA: PIE – ICAO: KPIE – FAA LID: PIE
PIE is located in Florida
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PIE
Location of the Airport in Florida
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Board of County Commissioners,
Pinellas County
Serves Tampa/St. Petersburg Metropolitan Area
Location Pinellas County, near St. Petersburg, Florida
Elevation AMSL 11 ft / 3 m
Coordinates 27°54′36″N 082°41′15″W / 27.91°N 82.6875°W / 27.91; -82.6875
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]

St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (IATA: PIE, ICAO: KPIE, FAA LID: PIE) is a joint civil-military airport located in unincorporated Pinellas County, Florida, 6 miles (9.7 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 (16 km) to the east, St. Petersburg-Clearwater remains a destination airport for low-cost and charter carriers, notably several from Canada. Once a focus city for Largo based Southeast Airlines, St. Petersburg/Clearwater now 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 Tampa Bay Area.

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

Contents

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.

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
United States Army Air Forces, which used it as a military flight training base assigned to Third Air Force.

The 304th Fighter Squadron, a combat training unit of the 337th Fighter Group based P-40 Warhawks and, later, P-51 Mustangs at Pinellas Army Airfield (as it was then known) for the duration of World War II. Antisubmarine patrols were also flown from the airfield.

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 Medal of Honor in World War II and later served as the last wartime base commander of Pinellas Army Airfield. A permanent exhibit honoring General Howard is located in the terminal.

Postwar operation

FAA diagram of PIE

After World War II, 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.

Current airfield and U.S. military/U.S. Government facilities

Aerial view, runway 27
Runway 17L approach and parallel dual-use taxiway/runway 17R

Today, the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport is a 1,900-acre (7.7 km2) fully certified facility with an ILS-equipped 9,700-foot (3,000 m) runway and two 5,500-foot (1,700 m) runways. To relieve traffic congestion, the parallel taxiway for runway 17L-35R is also used as a daytime-only VFR runway, particularly for touch-and-go landings. The airport is home of
Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, the largest and busiest U.S. Coast Guard Air Station in the United States, operating HC-130 Hercules and HH-60J Jayhawk aircraft. The U.S. Army Reserve also maintains an Army Aviation Support Facility (AASF) at the airport for Companies A and F, 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment and Medical Evacuation Unit, operating UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-operated control tower, the FAA's Central Florida Region Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS)...the busiest AFSS in the United States...and the St. Petersburg VORTAC for airways 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 (FTZ) 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, security, and administrative personnel.

Recent developments

Baggage Claim Area (completed in 2000), which has a replica of the Benoist XIV flying boat flown by aviation pioneer Tony Jannus in 1914
PIE's Baggage Claim Area has four baggage carousels

In September 2006, Allegiant Air announced significant scheduled service from St. Petersburg-Clearwater to destinations in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Since then, Allegiant has grown its destination count to and from PIE to 21 airports across the Eastern US. In February, the Lansing, MI, service shifted to Grand Rapids, Michigan, with four weekly flights.

Also, the airport recently completed a $9.5 million renovation, 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. These improvement played a significant roll in the airport luring Frontier Airlines to launch flights at the airport.[4]

Locair began regular flights from PIE to The Bahamas on December 18; marking the only nonstop service from the Tampa Bay area to the Bahamas. Locair uses 9 and 19 seat configured turboprops on the nonstop flights.

Starting Fall of 2010, Frontier Airlines will launch service at the airport, shifting its Milwaukee flight from Tampa International Airport. It is reported that the move is in response to the high competition on the Tampa-Milwaukee route from rivals Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways. Frontier also plans to launch nonstop service to Omaha in the beginning of 2011.

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]

Airlines and destinations

Domestic destinations served from
St. Petersburg International Airport
(as of February 2011)

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

Passenger airlines

Airlines Destinations
Air Transat operated by CanJet Seasonal: Halifax, Toronto-Pearson [begins December 24]
Allegiant Air Allentown/Bethlehem, Bangor, Blountville/Tri-Cities, Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Chattanooga, Chicago/Rockford, Des Moines, Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids, Greensboro, Greenville (SC), Huntington, Knoxville, Lexington, Moline-Quad Cities, Niagara Falls [begins December 15], Peoria, Plattsburgh, Roanoke, South Bend, Springfield/Branson, Toledo, Youngstown
Locair Marsh Harbour, Treasure Cay
SeaCoast Airlines Charter: Key West, Marathon
Sunwing Airlines Toronto-Pearson
Vision Airlines Gulfport-Biloxi

Top destinations

Busiest Domestic Routes from St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (April 2010 - March 2011)[5]
Rank City Passengers Carriers
1 South Carolina Greer, SC 26,000 Allegiant Air
2 Tennessee Knoxville, TN 25,000 Allegiant Air
3 Illinois Peoria, IL 22,000 Allegiant Air
4 Michigan Grand Rapids, MI 21,000 Allegiant Air
5 Indiana Fort Wayne, IN 21,000 Allegiant Air
6 Indiana South Bend, IN 20,000 Allegiant Air
7 Pennsylvania Allentown, PA) 20,000 Allegiant Air
8 Missouri Springfield, MO 18,000 Allegiant Air
9 West Virginia Huntington, WV 18,000 Allegiant Air
10 Illinois Rockford, IL 16,000 Allegiant Air

Cargo Airlines

Airlines Destinations
UPS Airlines Jacksonville, Louisville, Philadelphia

Former Airlines

Air Florida
Air South
American Airlines
ATA Airlines
Canada 3000
Delta Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines
Lorair
Myrtle Beach Direct Air
Nordair
Northeastern International Airways
Northwest Airlines
PEOPLExpress
Royal Airlines
Skyservice Airlines
Southeast Airlines
Sun Country Airlines
Sun Pacific
Trans Global Vacations (Ryan International Airlines)
USA 3000

Accidents and incidents

On 6 June 1982, Douglas C-47A N95C of Fromhagen Aviation was written off when the starboard engine failed on take-off on a training flight. All five people on board survived.[6]

See also

Portal icon Florida portal
Portal icon Aviation portal
Portal icon United States Air Force portal
Portal icon Military of the United States portal
Portal icon World War II portal
  • List of airports in the Tampa Bay area
  • Florida World War II Army Airfields
  • James G. Howes, Airport Director (1980-2000)

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

  • Bickel, Karl A. - The Mangrove Coast, 1942 by Coward McCann, Inc., Fourth Edition in 1989 by Omni Print Media, Inc., p. 265
  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. Archived from the original on 2008-02-04. http://web.archive.org/web/20080204230034/http://www.tonyjannusaward.com/history.html. Retrieved 2008-04-25. 
  4. ^ 'Other' airport gets facelift, St. Petersburg Times, June 26, 2007.
  5. ^ http://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1&Airport=PIE&Airport_Name=St.%20Petersburg,%20FL:%20St.%20Petersburg%20International&carrier=FACTS
  6. ^ "N95C Accident report". Aviation Safety Network. http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19820606-0. Retrieved 25 July 2010. 

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