The number of Tampa International Airport's international passengers is gaining some altitude. Two new services that weren't in place last year are the reason why.
Tampa International Airport's international passengers increased by 20 percent year to date compared to the first 7 months of 2011. 51,000 more international passengers went through Tampa this year.
Airport spokeswoman Janet Zink says she's attributing the increase in passengers to two new services. TPA now has 5 weekly flights to Cuba and has a nonstop flight to Switzerland.
"These numbers are really encouraging, the Edelweiss flights are new for us," she says, "It was the first new nonstop service to Europe in over a decade from here and we're really encouraged by how well the flights are performing, they're more than 70 percent full."
Zink says these flights were originally coming out of Orlando International Airport but weren't nearly as full.
"We feel that this demonstrates that this market can support international flights and it's a priority of ours to bring in even more," she says.
