Soaring business
Charter airline Freedom II occupies this hangar where a Boeing 757 plus smaller planes reside at the Treasure Coast International Airport. ST. LUCIE COUNTY
Airports bring dollars — as well as passengers — to Treasure Coast
BY SUSAN BURGESS
Shovels await the groundbreaking for more Treasure Coast International Airport improvements. Many improvements have been made in recent years and more are on the list. ST. LUCIE COUNTY
The Treasure Coast’s airports are on the move, each in a different way.
While St. Lucie County’s Treasure Coast International Airport is growing and hoping to snag a passenger airline, the Vero Beach Regional Airport is booming thanks in great part to passenger flights by Breeze Airways. Martin County’s Witham Field doesn’t offer passenger service but it does offer a huge boost to the economy, said county spokeswoman Martha Ann Kneiss.
Cathy Townsend, a St. Lucie County commissioner who made airport growth her project, as soon as she was elected in 2016, said there are “ongoing talks” with large and small passenger airlines but nothing to announce, in time for this publication’s deadline.
Vero Beach Regional Airport Director Todd Scher said Breeze Airways, which flies 137-passenger Airbus A220 planes to eight destinations from Vero, has grown exponentially. He marvels at the increase in passengers in just 11 months, more than doubling from 85,728 to 175,995. In January 2025 it had 5,000 passengers more than in January 2024, he noted.
“We didn’t know what to expect when they came to us,” he said. “They told us they would do four to six flights, and maybe eight, each week. Now they are up to 34 flights a week and the numbers keep rising.” In keeping with the airline’s growth, Orlando and Tampa just got a new Breeze route to Key West.
The young airline made its first flight in 2021 and began service from Vero Beach Regional Airport in 2023. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Breeze offers more than 170 year-round and seasonal flights between 60-plus cities in 30 states, according to its website. Aviation Business News reports that it turned a profit for the first time in the last quarter of 2024, and that the revenue grew by 78 percent compared to 2023.
That the planes are only a few years old raises the comfort level for those who worry about flying. Breeze even won awards for “best seat comfort” from a passenger association, and Travel and Leisure ranked it one of the world’s best domestic airlines for three years. A U.S. Customs facility was scheduled to open there in April, making it more convenient for international passengers to land in Vero. “All the comments I see on social media about flights aboard Breeze are positive,” Scher said.
The 1,700-acre Vero Beach Regional Airport has 50 tenants, including Walking Tree Brewery, Dragonfly Boatworks, Backbeat Music Parlor and Sherwin-Williams paints. It also has 142 hangars across a number of buildings on the property.
The 2022 Florida Aviation Economic Impact Study says the airport has a $933 million economic impact, which includes dollars earned on and off the grounds. The study points out that Piper Aircraft, which is one of the largest manufacturers of general aviation aircraft in the nation, is also located in Vero Beach although not on airport property.
Piper created about 1,000 jobs out of the 6,000 jobs credited to the aviation business in Vero. The Vero Beach Air Show brings thousands of people who spend money at airport businesses, thereby increasing the economic impact. The eagerly awaited U.S. Navy Blue Angels return next year with spectacular performances May 15-17, 2026.
ST. LUCIE’S HOPES
St. Lucie County is hoping to snag a major passenger airline as well as a minor one, said County Commissioner Cathy Townsend. It already has a very successful charter airline — Freedom II — operating from a large rented hangar and it’s thinking about a second hangar as well, she said. Freedom charters fly to the Bahamas and Caribbean, made possible by having a customs and border protection office at the airport.
Freedom also houses a 62-passenger Boeing 757, used for charters, at its St. Lucie hangar. Occasionally it’s seen flying over St. Lucie County, causing residents to wonder if commercial passenger service has finally moved in.
After the 3,844-acre airport got its Federal Aviation Administration safety certification for commercial passenger service in the fall, efforts to woo an airline stepped up. Townsend is hopeful that at least one of the talks with unnamed airlines will be fruitful.
There has been speculation, she acknowledged, that American Airlines might be the one. Infinity Flight Academy is starting to train students to become American Airlines pilots, providing a career path directly from the classroom to a program at American. “It only stands to reason that people would think that American would bring passenger service here,” Townsend said.
Work to improve the terminal for a passenger airline has begun. The last airline to use the terminal was called Fly the Whale, which offered commuter service to Tallahassee starting in 2018. But by 2019, it had given up due to lack of passengers, and returned to its regular charter service to the Caribbean and Bahamas. Before that, the Delta Connection provided passenger service to their hub in Atlanta, during the 1990s.
The airport currently has 10 hangars, all leased. Next, another 10 will be constructed on the north side of the airport. To the west, headed toward Kings Highway, is acreage for an industrial park. And, Townsend said a hotel may eventually be built. Over 30 businesses also operate near the airport itself.
Sun Aviation’s Sun Jet Center is a fixed base operator at Vero Beach Regional airport offering aviation services such as maintenance and fueling and charter service. VERO BEACH REGIONAL AIRPORT
A very attractive building provides a comfortable waiting area.
WITHAM SOARING
The airfield in Martin County which opened in 1928 underwent several name changes, ending up as Witham Field after Paul Homer Witham, left, who was the first pilot from Stuart to die in World War II. The airport provides a big boost to Martin County’s economy. STUART HERITAGE MUSEUM MARTIN COUNTY LIBRARY ARCHIVE
In Martin County, Witham Field doesn’t offer passenger service and has no plans to do so, said spokeswoman Martha Ann Kneiss. The 726-acre airport has an air traffic control tower and a customs facility; it is home to more than 200 planes in private and business use, plus two fixed base operators offering aviation services. There are several flight schools, as well as other aviation services. Opened originally in 1928 as Krueger Field, it became MacArthur Field and finally Witham Field, after Paul Homer Witham who was the first pilot from Stuart to die in World War II.
Witham Field has a significant economic impact, Kneiss said. It spends no tax dollars and is self-supporting. The 2022 Florida Aviation Economic Impact Study reports that the overall economic impact including jobs and income off the airport grounds is $1.3 billion, with a total of 6,858 jobs generated on and off the airport. Some of that income comes from the overwhelmingly popular annual Stuart Air Show, which brings thousands of people to the airport each year. Expect the next one on Nov. 7-9. Martin County commissioners are now working on an update to the airport’s business plan to make sure it continues to grow.
General-aviation, public-use airports are big business in Florida: the 125 named in the 2022 Florida Aviation Economic Impact Study generated a total economic impact of $336 billion, including off-airport jobs and income, and directly employed over 18,000 people at those airports.
With luck, Treasure Coast International Airport will be boosting those numbers with the addition of a passenger airline soon.
