Vero Beach officials have no plans – in the foreseeable future, anyway – to expand the city airport’s terminal building to accommodate the surging popularity and better-than-anyone-imagined success of Breeze Airways in this market.
In fact, Vero Beach Airport Director Todd Scher said neither the City Council nor City Manager Monte Falls had discussed with him such a possibility.
“No one has mentioned it,” Scher said. “There’s something in our Airport Master Plan that would allow us to extend the terminal building into the parking lot to the west, but there’s nothing planned.
“There’s not even a design,” he continued. “At this point, it’s just a space we’re reserving in the master plan for possible future expansion, so that if there’s a desire, there’s a place for it.”
Scher paused, then quickly added: “And even then, the reason for the expansion would not be to attract more airlines. It would be to better handle the passengers we have now and provide a more comfortable environment.”
Indeed, Scher dismissed any speculation that the city is looking to attract a second commercial carrier to Vero Beach. He said other airlines, prompted by Breeze’s rousing reception here, have “made inquiries” about the airport’s facilities, but none have followed up.
“There’s not a lot of interest because our facilities are so small,” he said. “It’s really hard to see more than one airline operating more than a few flights.”
This summer, Breeze announced plans to add three more Northeast destinations – Islip and Newburgh in New York, and New Haven, Connecticut – to its Vero Beach route map later this year, when as many as 35 flights per week could depart from the city’s airport.
The Utah-based airline currently connects Vero Beach to Westchester County, New York; Hartford, Connecticut; and Providence, Rhode Island.
But a Breeze spokesman said last month that company officials are considering more busy-season offerings, which raised the question: How much commercial airline activity can the city’s airport handle?
Or to be more precise: What is the weekly capacity of the terminal building’s passenger facilities?
Not even Scher could produce an answer: “I don’t know how we would calculate it.”
He was confident, though, that the airport’s facilities and operational staff could accommodate more than the 35 weekly departures – and respective arrivals – Breeze has planned for this winter.
In theory, anyway.
“We would need to depend on the airline to structure its flight schedule to provide us with a reasonable expectation of having only one aircraft on the ground at a time,” Scher said.
“But given enough staff – in a perfectly scheduled world, with no delays – we definitely could accommodate more than 35 departures per week.”
And in an imperfectly scheduled world, which can include the delays common to air travel?
There can be overlaps between passengers from incoming and outgoing flights, and the terminal can accommodate only so many people.
Last season, those situations also put stress on the airport’s parking facilities, passenger-pickup areas, security-scanning operation and policing.
Scher described the airport’s facilities in such scenarios as “functional but not comfortable” – and that was last winter, when Breeze departures reached a high of only 29.
“If you ask the airline and passengers if we should just go ahead and expand the terminal, they’ll say yes,” Scher said. “If you ask members of the city’s leadership, you’ll get a different answer.”
The city has begun a project to improve its terminal facilities, repurposing two banquet rooms previously used by C.J. Cannon’s restaurant. The space is being converted into an arriving-passenger exit lane, restrooms and a car-rental kiosk.
Work crews will also add a covered baggage area, which will remain outdoors.
Another concern stemming from Breeze’s scheduled increase in service destinations this season would be the city’s ability to provide the Federal Aviation Administration-mandated fire-rescue response capability for a more-active airport.
“If we reach that threshold, where we’re averaging five departures per day on a monthly basis, we’re required to increase the level of our fire-rescue response capability,” Scher said.
“And that would require us to work with the county to make sure the personnel will be available.”
That’s because the city would need to ensure that at least two fire-rescue vehicles – instead of only one, as has been the case since Breeze arrived in Vero Beach in February 2023 – were available at the airport at all times.
Breeze, though, would cover the cost of the increased level of fire-rescue service, just as it reimburses the city for runway inspections and the personnel needed to support its operations at the airport.
The city, meanwhile, gets seven cents from every gallon of aviation fuel pumped by airport business tenants, including Breeze, as well as 10 percent of the cost of every car rental on the premises.
The city does not receive any revenue from Breeze’s ticket sales, however.
As for possible competition from St. Lucie County’s efforts to lure an airline to Treasure Coast International Airport in Fort Pierce, Scher seemed unfazed.
“There seems to be a philosophical difference between what they want and what we want,” he said. “There, the county is interested in bringing in commercial airline service and is willing to expand its facilities. Here, we’re being told: Do the best you can with the resources you have.”
The airport here operates as an enterprise fund, which means it relies on the revenues it generates – and any grant money it can acquire – to cover the costs of its operations.
It does not receive tax dollars from the city’s general fund.
“If we were directed by our City Council to secure additional airline service, even if it required an expansion of our facilities, we’d be at it today, doing our best to make that happen,” Scher said. “But, at this point in time, the city’s leaders don’t believe that adding more and more airline service is the future of our airport.
“The feeling I get is: They’re glad Breeze is here and enjoying success, but there’s no desire to add another airline – that everybody’s comfortable with what’s happening right now.”
In July, Breeze unveiled its plan to add Newburgh and Islip to its Vero Beach destinations.
On Oct. 2, the airline will not only resume its seasonal service to and from Islip’s Long Island MacArthur Airport, but it will also double the number of flights to four per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
The Vero-Islip service was introduced last October, but it was suspended in May for the summer months, despite Breeze officials saying the route was well-received.
The airline then plans to offer twice weekly flights to and from Newburgh’s Stewart International Airport – located 70 miles north of Manhattan, on the west bank of the Hudson River – starting on Nov. 21.
Last month, Breeze announced that it was adding Monday and Friday flights to and from New Haven, with service scheduled to start Dec. 13.
Breeze spokesman Ryne Williams said the additional flights will not be offset by a reduction of service to other destinations.
