The Tampa International Airport, just like other players of the travel and tourism industry, is seeing the impacts of COVID-19.

The airport announced that it delayed construction of Airside D, which is the final phase of its master plan.

The $690-million, 16-gate terminal for both domestic and international flights was originally scheduled to begin the design phase in March 2021 and be completed in 2024. Airside D will allow the airport to serve more than 34 million passengers annually.

The dramatic reduction in passenger volume resulting from the COVID-19 crisis gives the airport an opportunity to push back this project. The new plan calls for revisiting the airport’s passenger forecast in 2021, updating the master plan in 2022 and differing the start of construction to 2025.

The airport three-phase master plan was designed to give it the ability to build as passenger demand dictates, moving the project forward or backwards as needed, to adjust to unforeseen circumstances.

“It was a smart approach that is now serving us well as we recalibrate our budget and our expectations for the next few years,” stated airport CEO Joe Lopano. “We will very much see a need for Airside D in our future and we’re thankful we have the flexibility to build it when the time is right.”