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The independent airport authority also elected Taunya Villicana, a financial planner and TAA board member for the past four years, as its chair, replacing Lisa Lovallo.

During the year, TIA logged an average of 60 daily departures, with more than 7,000 available seats on flights to 20 nonstop destinations, as it continued to recover from flight cuts that followed the Great Recession.

“The past decade left its mark on our region but recent business successes and the recovery of our tourism industry are showing up in these improved passenger numbers,� TAA President and CEO Danette Bewley said.

During 2019, TIA opened a new “C Gatesâ€� complex to accommodate new low-cost carriers such as Allegiant Air, which began serving ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ in 2018 along with Frontier Airlines, while Allegiant added Indianapolis as a third nonstop route from ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.

Meanwhile, other airlines such as Delta added capacity with larger planes or more frequent departures.

Bewley, who was named TAA’s CEO in December, said TIA also made progress last year in reducing the “leakage� of passengers to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.

TIA retained 67.3% of local traffic in 2019, compared with 62.6% in 2017, cutting Sky Harbor’s share of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ air-passenger traffic by more than 30%, a new study performed for TAA by Volaire Aviation shows.

Last year, the airport authority completed further terminal renovations at TIA, adding restrooms, upgrading public WiFi access and remodeling the airport’s military lounge.

TIA also won Federal Aviation Administration approval to begin design work on the airport’s planned $230 million airfield safety enhancement project, which includes replacing a parallel main runway as a full-length runway.

This year, the airport authority plans to begin construction on the airfield safety project, start design work on an extension of South Country Club Road, launch a study on the need for a new terminal and begin to install new signage on airport access roadways and inside the terminal to help guide travelers.

Looking ahead, Bewley and outgoing TAA chair Lisa Lovallo noted the independent airport authority is looking to expand economic development at the airport, in partnership with Sun Corridor Inc.

Last year, TAA and Sun Corridor unveiled an “economic blueprint� calling for a focus on attracting aerospace and defense businesses — including aviation maintenance, flight schools and aerospace manufacturing — as well as transportation and logistics.

The airport has identified three major airport parcels to make “shovel ready� for new development.

While no new tenants were announced, during a brief panel discussion Sun Corridor CEO Joe Snell said his group has been pitching the airport sites and has a strong pipeline of companies interested in the airport properties.

All told, the prospective tenants represent some 2,000 potential new jobs and $2 billion worth of research, Snell said.

TAA is studying the need for a new airport terminal and entrance at TIA, including a limited-access expressway from Interstate 10 and plans to evaluate the value of an east-west rail line to connect the open land south of the airport to the Port of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.

During the annual meeting, former TAA board chair Lisa Israel credited former authority CEO Bonnie Allin with shepherding TIA and Ryan Airfield through the Great Recession and its lingering effects, and for spearheading many improvements and initiatives in the past decade, including a major terminal renovation.

Allin headed the airport authority as president and CEO from 2002 until last June, when she was replaced by the TAA board.

“Bonnie built a great team and together they accomplished very significant achievements,� said Israel.

Israel noted that under Allin’s leadership, TIA earned excellent customer and passenger ratings, created and regularly updated master plans and helped negotiate land swaps to create more buffer zone to help Raytheon Missile Systems expand its campus at the airport.

In other action at the TAA annual meeting, members voted to add two new board members: Mike Hammond, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield/PICOR Commercial Real Estate; and Phil Swaim, president of the local architecture firm Swaim Associates Ltd.

The TAA also named two new members: Debi Chess, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥; and Calline Sanchez, an IBM Corp. vice president who leads the company’s storage-systems operation in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.