In December, Lakeland city commissioners approved an agreement with Avelo Airlines to operate passenger air service out of Lakeland International Airport.
In the three months since, there have been no announcements about when the flights will begin, how many there will be, and where they will go.
“Right now, we’re still waiting on TSA and their approval processes. It is a heavy lift getting an airport federalized,” said Adam Lunn, assistant airport director. “I think the process has been a little bit longer than we anticipated initially but I think that we’re finally to a spot where we just have a few more things to button up.”
Lunn said airport staff is completing its airport security plan, which is a thorough and largely confidential document outlining the airport’s safety protocol.
“We’re having daily calls right now with the airline and they are very eager to announce service. Unfortunately, they had an issue at another airport in the country where that approval was delayed, they started selling tickets and then they had to bus people to other airports so they’re trying to avoid that,” said Lunn.
“We are waiting on the airport’s TSA approvals for commercial air service. Once we get approval, we’ll be ready to announce within a week, but we will not have any news until TSA provides the airport with the information for when [it] will be ready,” Courtney Goff, an Avelo Airlines spokesperson wrote in an email.
When airport director Kris Hallstrand was asked about Avelo Airlines at this week’s city commission meeting, she compared it to the “chicken and the egg” dilemma.
“We talk with the airline daily. We talk with TSA multiple times a day. We’re trying to figure out how to get that chicken and egg to become one and we’re stuck in the middle understanding both sides but it’s getting very frustrating on our end,” she said.
Lunn said the hope is Avelo will start operating out of the airport by the summer, though the decision is up to the airline.
On Monday, city commissioners approved a grant for the design of new areas to hold aircraft when there are delays with regional air traffic control.
Right now, officials said they are held in the vicinity of the runway.
Once the airport is federalized, Lunn said the new area can hold planes being diverted from other airports.
“Because we are federalizing, we are then able to accept other airlines to come in and hold aircraft here on the ground because we can protect those passengers as well,” he said.