Tucson airport has yet to reach pre-pandemic passenger levels

And after getting an infusion of federal airport COVID-19 relief funding, TIA was awarded federal infrastructure grants that are expected to speed up construction on the airport’s $350 million airfield safety improvement project.

By the end of 2021, TIA had recovered 85% of its passenger volume compared with pre-COVID 2019, the Tucson Airport Authority said in its recently released annual review.

TIA served about 2.7 million passengers, including departures and arrivals, in 2021, up nearly 59% from 2020 but down 29% from nearly 3.8 million passengers in 2019.

“In 2020, after the pandemic hit, it was a little bit sketchy there for those first few months, then it’s been kind of a slow climb back to where we are today,” said Danette Bewley, president and CEO of the Tucson Airport Authority.

Airport officials were hoping to get about 90% of passenger traffic at TIA back this year before the omicron variant of COVID-19 caused a surge in cases and crimped air travel, Bewley said.

“That threw a big monkey wrench into the works, and we’ve had some setbacks already in this fiscal year due to omicron,” she said, citing moves by airlines to change or cancel flights largely due to staffing challenges.

“It’s hard to predict where we’re going to go, whether we’ll reach that 90% expectation,” Bewley said. “We’re thrilled with the service we do have, and when we compare it to some of our peer airports, we’re doing pretty well, and better than some. Our market is still strong, and people want to come to Tucson so that helps.”

But TIA’s recovery still depends on the pace of the airline industry’s rebound from the omicron surge and solving critical labor shortages, Bewley said, adding: “The airlines are hiring like crazy, but it’s just a really tough time.”

Taking steps forward, back

As of the end of 2021, nine airlines offered service to 19 nonstop destinations from TIA, after nonstop flights had dropped to 15 in 2020.

The airport added a new nonstop flight on Alaska Airlines to Everett, Washington, last year, which seems to be doing well, Bewley said.

Low-cost carrier Avelo Airlines launched a nonstop from Tucson to Hollywood Burbank Airport in December 2021 but dropped the flight in mid-January after a surge in COVID-19 cases from the omicron variant curtailed bookings.

Tucson also lost several routes when low-cost carrier Allegiant Air suspended its flights to Indianapolis; Provo, Utah; and Bellingham, Washington. Frontier Airlines dropped a nonstop to Denver last year but added a flight to Las Vegas.

But several major airlines restored service at TIA that was suspended during the height of the pandemic in 2020, including American and Southwest, which both reinstated flights to Los Angeles and Chicago.

TIA also gained additional service to Denver on American and Southwest, and Houston was added as a nonstop by United and Southwest.

A high level of demand during the latter half of 2021 should help encourage airlines to consider adding new routes at TIA, Bewley said.

Since April 2021, more than 80% of available seats at TIA were filled in every month except August, outpacing the U.S. recovery, the Airport Authority said.

“When you’re selling the airlines air service, you want to show them you have a strong market,” Bewley said.

Thanks to a strong air-travel recovery in the second half of the 2021 fiscal year ended Sept. 30, annual operating revenues came in about 5% above budget at $36.3 million, and expenses were 2.4% below budget, according to preliminary, unaudited financial results.

Bewley said airport officials were careful to adopt a conservative budget last year and used millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funding mainly to pay staffing expenses as its revenues fell.

Marketing TIA

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the Airport Authority moved ahead with a plan to attract new businesses to TIA and surrounding land owned by the airport in partnership with Sun Corridor Inc. to help drive local economic development.

In October, the authority launched its Commercial and Industrial Business Implementation Plan to help market land at TIA and at Ryan Airfield to prospective tenants.

The land available at TIA will be marketed as the “Sonoran Commerce Center” and is divided into four different areas based on the best use of the land. That plan has been shared with regional partners, national and international business-site selectors and is available on the Airport Authority website at tucne.ws/1jjze.

The authority also launched a new branding campaign, “Nonstop for Tucson,” to help restore confidence in TIA and to raise overall community awareness of the airport and its contribution to the Southern Arizona region.

Beginning in February 2021, the campaign advertised in local publications, digital platforms, social media, cable television, billboards, and was included in numerous community partnerships.

Project propelled

After years of study and design, the Airport Authority launched construction on the biggest construction project in TIA’s history last year when initial utilities work was completed and work on taxiways began in October, ahead of construction of a new full-length parallel runway.

The End-Around Taxiway project, which includes new taxiways to limit confusion that can cause hazardous runway incursions, is expected to be completed by January 2023.

The shorter, parallel runway to the main runway at TIA will be demolished and replaced with a new, full-length parallel runway to handle commercial airliners.

The new runway is expected to be finished by 2024, or 2025 depending on the pace of funding, said Mike Smejkal, vice president of planning and engineering for the Tucson Airport Authority.

After that, the current main runway will be closed for construction and commercial traffic shifted to the new runway so work can proceed on new taxiways between runways, which will take another year or so, Smejkal said.

Overall, he said, the airfield project has had only minor supply-chain issues because of COVID-19 but has faced some contractor labor shortages and rapidly rising costs.

But new federal funding will help cover higher costs and potentially speed up completion of the project, Smejkal said.

The airfield project is being funded mainly with grants from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program, which is funded by passenger surcharges, along with airport revenue and state grants.

Beyond that, TIA is expected to receive about $31 million in increments of just over $6 million annually over five years from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law last November.

The legislation authorized about $550 billion in new spending to upgrade infrastructure including broadband connectivity, roads and bridges and transportation including $25 billion to improve airports.

“That $31 million, we know we’re going to get it and it’s certainly above above what we have planned for,” Smejkal said. “We are also trying to unwind some other opportunities within that bill to get some competitive grants, to help accelerate it as well.”