Tampa Looks To Next Stage With Transatlantic, Latin America Focus

HONG KONG—Tampa International Airport (TPA) is targeting new transatlantic and Latin American connections as it looks to build future growth, according to marketing director Alex Heiter.

“Our current focus is to continue to build nonstop linkages to major hub points in Europe and Latin America, driving higher inbound visitation to Tampa Bay and enabling greater business growth to fuel our economic engine,” he tells Routes.

The Florida airport is coming off a record period of service launches, including Avianca’s nonstop to Bogota—TPA’s first link to South America—and JetBlue’s upcoming daily service to Punta Cana.

“Latin [America and the] Caribbean has been booming for TPA, with our winter 2025-26 capacity up over 300% versus the pre-pandemic period,” Heiter says, adding that there is “much more potential” for growth across the region.

Europe has also been a bright spot, with TPA’s peak summer 2025 program its biggest on record. “In Europe, just over the past year our peak summer season was our largest ever, with capacity up 16% from 2024,” Heiter says. He also pointed to the launch of TPA’s first-ever nonstop flights to Western Canada, with both WestJet and Air Canada inaugurating Vancouver services in summer 2025.

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Domestically, LCC Breeze Airways has continued to expand from Tampa. “In 2025 alone, Breeze added seven new routes at TPA, including destinations we’ve never been able to offer previously, such as Erie and Lansing,” Heiter explains.

Looking ahead, TPA’s growth strategy is shaped by an Air Service Strategic Plan, which identifies target routes and airlines in collaboration with community stakeholders.

“We know that a significant portion of passengers in our international catchment area utilize other airports in the region due to availability of nonstop flights,” Heiter says. “But as we’ve added new nonstops, we’ve been able to recapture our own catchment traffic and save folks hours on the highways.

“Given the level of diversion we continue to see on other O&Ds, we are confident there remains a massive opportunity for TPA to open nonstop links to more international destinations.”