In the middle of the night, Louis Claudio’s house sometimes shakes. A roar fills his ears. He wakes, frantic, only to come to his senses and realize it’s not the end of the world — a plane has just flown low over his home.
And it’s likely several others will soon.
These planes often pass after midnight to the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport. Their flight paths take them over communities such as Oldsmar, Pinellas Park, Del Oro Grove and Safety Harbor, where Claudio lives. Business at the airport has grown exponentially since he moved in.
The number of passengers per year more than doubled from 1 million in 2013 to 2.5 million in 2023, and the airport recently announced a $110 million expansion to accommodate the increase in traffic.
The expansion will include the addition of a second floor and extra gates, which could bring an up to 20% increase in capacity, according to an airport report to Pinellas County.
“We need this,” said Michele Routh, airport spokesperson. “We need the gate area, we need restrooms, we need a lot of things. We are bursting at the seams.”
But for Claudio, the expansion is a sign of things getting worse, not better.
When he moved to Safety Harbor in 1996, Claudio said the plane traffic from the airport wasn’t an issue. He bought the house knowing he was near a flight path, but at the time, his sleep was not interrupted by regular night flights. Many years later, Claudio now finds himself awakened three to four times, often past midnight, he said.
“I know that fish got to swim and planes got to fly,” Claudio said. “My big issue is just, can I get some sleep? And I know I can’t be the only person affected by this.”
Allegiant Air, the primary commercial airline that flies to and from St. Pete-Clearwater, agreed to observe a voluntary quiet window from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. in 2005 as part of a noise abatement campaign. But by his count, Claudio has heard over 400 planes during the quiet window since the beginning of this year — and with room for even more planes, he fears that number will increase, he said.
Claudio said that if he had the means to move, he would.
Sometimes delays due to weather or mechanical malfunctions push flights into the night. Because the airport is governed by the Federal Aviation Administration, local entities like the Pinellas Board of County Commissioners don’t have the authority to impose curfews or fines when that happens. Claudio has submitted thousands of noise complaints over the years to airport authorities. Twenty other households this year have also complained, according to data from the airport.
But there isn’t much the county or the airport can do to address the issue, County Commissioner Dave Eggers said.
“I think they do a pretty good job of getting most of the flights during the day and early evening,” Eggers said. “But that doesn’t preclude them from being able to fly anytime they want.”
The expansion money will go toward consolidating the security checkpoints (there are two) and building a second level, which will open opportunities for more gates and passenger bridges so customers can board right from the terminal, rather than walking outside and up a series of ramps. Airport staff are also seeking funding for a new parking garage, Routh said.
Eggers thinks the additions could also bring more flexibility to move night flights to daytime hours, he said. So, the expansion could lessen overnight noise, he said.
Residents also have the ability to communicate directly with the airport through its Noise Abatement Task Force, which is made up of representatives from local communities, airlines and the airport. According to its webpage, planes make less noise these days because of tighter noise restrictions from the Aviation Administration.
Two years ago, Reece Nanfito said he was reassured by the airport’s website that noise wouldn’t be a problem before he bought a house in Del Oro Groves. His impression was that the majority of planes fly over Tampa Bay, and that the voluntary quiet window was followed for nearly all flights, he said. But from his experience, that hasn’t been the case. Like Claudio, flights consistently disturb his sleep, but unlike Claudio, he doesn’t want to move.
Instead, he thinks there are solutions local authorities, like the county and the airport, could pursue for the affected neighborhoods, such as paying to fortify older homes against noise. Many of them were built during the 1950s, he said, with limited insulation and single pane windows that rattle easily. He is working on his own home, but fully shutting out airplane noise would cost him $30,000 to $50,000, he said.
“There’s no funding anywhere where someone will help mitigate that,” Nanfito said. “My point is, if they’re willing to spend $110 million to expand the airport, if they just took 1% to better sound insulate the homes affected, then those people don’t have to suffer.”
But officials are wary of putting pressure on the airport and Allegiant Air because of how much they benefit the regional economy, Pinellas County Commissioner Janet Long said. The airport has put over $3 billion into the economy (about $44 million a year) since it opened in 1957, according to a Florida Department of Transportation report. Tourism is the area’s greatest economic contributor, Long said.
Long lives under a flight path herself in Seminole. She also hears the planes coming and going, but she said they don’t bother her.
“I find it fairly comforting, quite frankly, listening to them,” she said.
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