St. Lucie County in active talks with airlines to fly out of Treasure Coast International

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — It could be just a matter of months before there are commercial flights at Treasure Coast International Airport in Fort Pierce, according to county leaders, with ongoing talks taking place with at least two unnamed airlines.

Once that ball gets rolling, those same leaders say, travelers could see destinations, airlines and facilities expand rapidly over the coming years and decades.

FAA certification must come first

First, the county-owned airport will need to secure a Federal Aviation Administration certification that allows for commercial passenger flights. That process has been ongoing, with the county waiting for word from the FAA on its application since last year .

During that time, a number of improvements have been made at the airport. Airport Director Cameron Howard told county commissioners in March that FAA inspectors found a "night and day" difference between an April 2023 inspection and a February 2024 one.

With those improvements now in place, and after months of review from federal regulators, FAA certification should be just weeks away, County Commission Chair Cathy Townsend told TCPalm in a campaign interview Thursday.

"We're probably about three weeks away from having that certificate in our hand," Townsend said.

Talks already taking place with airlines

The county has been in active talks with at least two airlines, Townsend said. She said she cannot share the names of the airlines at this time due to ongoing negotiations.

"One is a commercial airline, well known, and the other is (also) a commercial airline, but a little bit smaller. It's more like a Breeze (Airways), or something like that, a smaller airline," Townsend said.

The unnamed larger airline would be looking at destinations in the South, Townsend said, while the smaller would be looking at ones in the Northeast, including possibly the Boston area.

According to previous TCPalm reporting , the previous airport director had communications with Breeze in 2022, before the airline started flying out of Vero Beach Regional Airport. Emails obtained via a public records request showed the former director also communicated with executives for Avelo Airlines, to a lesser extent, shortly after Breeze picked Vero.

Breeze has a policy of neither confirming nor denying future destinations, but it is "all in with Vero," said company spokesperson Gareth Edmondson-Jones.

Avelo spokesperson Courtney Goff said there have been talks between her airline and Treasure Coast airport, which uses the code FPR.

"We have communicated with the team at FPR but have no immediate plans to establish service there," Goff said. "They still have a way to go before any commercial service can be established. We speak to airports with and without Avelo service daily discussing options, but we don’t have anything concrete to add."

Airline school separate from commercial discussions, for now

As for the larger airline, Townsend ruled out one option: United Airlines. That airline — the nation's fourth largest by number of passengers carried last year — has plans to start a pilot training program at the Treasure Coast airport, but it is not the carrier the county has talked to about passenger service.

"I can tell you that that's not the main commercial airline that we are talking to currently," Townsend said.

The pilot school has been referred to under the codename "Project Eagle" by the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County. According to the EDC, the project involves renovating an existing hanger and constructing a new hanger, with the airline planning to start instruction by early next year.

The Treasure Coast airport is likely to add more airlines as time goes on, including, possibly, United, Townsend said.

"Common sense would tell you that if they're going to have a school there for their own pilots, that's probably going to be an airline that's going to want to come to the airport," Townsend said.

Flights could begin next year

Whichever airline — or airlines — eventually decides to fly out of Treasure Coast, Townsend said to expect things to move quickly. She said "the one airline that has committed to come here" intends to take over the existing terminal, with county staff moving to another building. That airline has had representatives on the ground looking at what it would like to do there, Townsend said.

"Once the (FAA certification) comes in, I think you're looking at about 90 days for them to be able to finish wrapping up what they need to be able to get the terminal rolling for them," Townsend said. "And I would say probably 120 days before the big airline is ready to start taking flights here."

That means that, by sometime next year, the roughly half a million residents of the Port St. Lucie metropolitan area can expect to have commercial flight options from far closer to home, Townsend said.

The biggest airport in the state

Townsend went on to lay out a timeline for potential growth at Treasure Coast airport.

After commercial flights start next year, Townsend said the airport could reach a similar size to Melbourne Orlando International Airport. Then, 10 to 15 years later, Townsend expects the airport to be built out to about the size of Palm Beach International Airport.

Those expectations of rapid growth mirror statements made by county commissioners at a meeting in May, when discussing potential developments near the airport property.

During that conversation, Townsend put the total size of the airport property into perspective, using two of the larger airports in the area: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Orlando international airports.

"It is the largest airport in the state of Florida. It is underdeveloped, and it has not been utilized," Townsend said. "You could take Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and put it on our airport and have close to 1,000 acres leftover."

More: St. Lucie County courted Breeze Airways in 2022, but did it lose out to Vero Beach?

More: Improvements at St. Lucie airport are 'night and day,' feds say; passenger service still eyed

Commissioner Larry Leet, who is also the CEO of American Able Jets which has operated out of both Treasure Coast and Palm Beach international airports, said at the meeting he foresees an airport with multiple terminals along with a separate private entrance, similar to Palm Beach.

"We are going to have the same thing here. It's a matter of time before the county airport is going to be like West Palm Beach," Leet said in May.

Leet added that county staff and commissioners met with staff of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, last year, where the senator's staff said another large airport is needed in the area to alleviate congestion at Orlando and the airports in South Florida. An attempt made at the time to reach Rubio's office for comment about the meeting received no response.

The airport already has an international designation, as it has Customs and Border Protection facilities, and is currently used by private and charter flights coming from other countries such as the Bahamas.

Wicker Perlis is TCPalm's Watchdog Reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach him at wicker.perlis@tcpalm.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: St. Lucie County in active talks with airlines to fly out of Treasure Coast International