SRQ’s passenger numbers grew significantly during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw its all-time passenger traffic record broken several times. As demand for air travel surged, so too did pressure on the team’s workload since they were heavily reliant on manual processes. Though SRQ did operate a partial common-use gate operation, airport staff still managed gate and resource allocation through manual processes and dispersed systems. Operational data also had no way of syncing with the airport’s Flight Information Displays (FIDS) which meant a lot of manual processing was required to ensure that passenger-facing information stayed up-to-date and accurate.
