On hot mornings in the 1970s, Sarasota Bradenton International Airport shimmered. The terminal sat low to the ground, framed by a sky too bright to look at for long. Children wearing plastic sunglasses climbed the stairs to the roof observation deck with cups of Coca-Cola. Couples leaned against the deck railing to watch travelers, wearing dresses and suits, walk across the tarmac to board their flights. Women’s heels clicked against the sunbaked concrete. There were no jetways, just a staircase rolled up to the side of the plane and the feeling that you were going somewhere.

Back then, Sarasota Bradenton Airport (it didn’t become International until 1992) felt more like a neighborhood clubhouse than an international transportation hub. You could walk right up to the gate and hug loved ones who were departing and arriving. You could grab a sandwich—or a martini—at Jerry’s Dining Room. Pilots turned back for tardy passengers. Baggage arrived under an awning. No TSA or gate agents barked instructions to passengers.

Shea Oakley, an aviation historian featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker and the History Channel, collects airport memorabilia from around the country. “I probably have the largest collection of SRQ memorabilia out there,” he says. Oakley, 57, started visiting Sarasota with his parents in the late 1960s and remembers landing at SRQ. “The jet would pull up, they’d roll the stairs over, and the first thing that hit you when you stepped outside was that warm, humid, fragrant, salty air—you knew you were in Florida.”

Flying was fun and pricey in those days. “Planes were half full, you were treated well, and it was expensive, so you dressed up,” says Oakley.

As a teenager, he spent hours on SRQ’s observation deck. "It had little 25-cent binoculars—you could look through them and actually wave to people as they climbed the stairs onto their planes,” he recalls. You could also bike there, drink there, set up lawn chairs to watch the hustle and bustle, and–if you were lucky—fall in love there, which locals reminisce about on social media.

The airport’s architecture matched the romance. The Sarasota School of Architecture’s Paul Rudolph and his partners—John Murphy Crowell of Sarasota and Eliot C. Fletcher of Tampa—designed it in 1955 as a soaring pavilion, with a broad, flat roof supported by open-web steel joists that evoked the lightness of flight. A grand staircase lifted passengers to that observation deck, which had panoramic views of the runway. The original plans included a swimming pool, a 12-room hotel and full-service dining. It was optimistic, extravagant even. Sarasota’s mayor at the time called it "fanfare."

Rudolph’s grand plans were scaled back after a call for frugality, and SRQ remained small and personal until 1989, when a $60 million makeover transformed the airport. Jetways arrived. A sleek terminal with boutique shops and an enormous tropical fish tank replaced the older structures.

In 2000, the airport had 1.24 million passengers. There were whispers that JetBlue was coming, maybe even Southwest. But national events cut the ascent short. The aftershocks of 9/11, economic downturns and airline consolidations shrank SRQ’s offerings. Tampa, with its robust infrastructure and cheaper flights, and then Southwest Florida International Airport in Ft. Myers, began siphoning traffic. Sarasota’s airport, while still beautiful, was increasingly overlooked.

“Sometimes, you think our airport isn’t even open,” said the Hilton Garden Inn’s Adam Mirenda in the early 2000s. The airport board fretted about being reduced to private and charter flights. Analysts like Michael Boyd of Boyd Group International warned that smaller airports were especially vulnerable. Sarasota’s reliance on leisure travelers—76 percent, by some estimates—made it less attractive to airlines focused on frequent business flyers.

But today, SRQ is flying high.

By 2021, it was recognized as one of the fastest-growing airports in the United States by percentage increase, recording a remarkable 155 percent year-over-year jump in passenger traffic, according to SRQ CEO Rick Piccolo. Much of this growth was fueled by pandemic-era travel shifts that made smaller regional airports more attractive.

In January 2025, SRQ’s new Concourse A opened—a roughly $115 million expansion that includes five new gates and local restaurants like Patricks 1481 and the Anna Maria Oyster Bar. In March 2025, the airport recorded 597,796 passengers—the busiest month in its history, and an 8 percent increase over the previous March. Total passengers in 2024 hit 4.25 million (a slight decrease from 2023’s 4.32 million due to Hurricanes Helene and Milton). Eleven airlines now fly to 68 nonstop destinations.

Bringing in low-cost carriers like Allegiant and Avelo have played a role in shaping travel demand. “If you offer a low fare, people will take that trip. You’re creating net new traffic,” says Boyd.

SRQ's growth outlook remains strong.

By 2030, estimated projections forecast roughly 5.5 million passengers coming and going from SRQ; by 2050, that number hovers around 8 million. And as for that longing for the old observation deck, there’s a new one on a former gravel parking lot on 15th Street East. It has a wing-shaped shade structure and a plane-themed playground, so visitors can watch the planes come and go—and maybe fall in love, too.

“Sarasota is growing like a weed,” Boyd says. “People are flying in for the beaches and other things to do. They don’t want the mess that comes with huge airports and highways that are like parking lots. Sarasota is easier. More relaxed. And the airport is in a position to take advantage of that. They’ve done an incredible job. They’ve been careful. Right place, right time—and they prepared for the growth.”