If you are one of the thousands of travelers passing through Tampa International Airport this holiday season, you will experience what is generally regarded as one of the finest airports in the country ranked the best in a 2008 Zagat survey of business travelers, and second only to Portland, Oregon in the same poll in 2009.
But there’s one hitch: If you want to fly directly from Tampa to a spot outside the United States, you’re out of luck unless you’re headed to Canada, London or the Cayman Islands. Those are the only three international destinations served by direct flights from Tampas airport. To get anywhere else beyond U.S. borders, you cant do so from Tampa without changing planes somewhere along your route.
The lack of direct international flights from TIA has been an ongoing issue for years, but frustrations welled up earlier this month in a raw exchange at a meeting of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority.
This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2009.
