SRQ airport seeks to go west

SARASOTA/BRADENTON — Sarasota Bradenton International Airport officials want to go west in their ongoing quest to add more flights.

The airport sent a $500,000 grant application to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The funds would be used to help woo an airline that would offer nonstop flights to cities such as Dallas, Denver, Houston and Salt Lake City. The grant application was noted in a recent meeting with Sarasota County Commissioners, where airport President and CEO Rick Piccolo asked for letters of support from officials and local business leaders.

The airport, under the call letters SRQ, has had an up-and-down year in terms of adding and losing flights. JetBlue Airways launched nonstop service to LaGuardia International Airport in New York City earlier this month, and Delta Air Lines previously announced plans to start its own SRQ-LaGuardia flight, in December. Plus, United Airlines will begin nonstop service to Chicago O'Hare International Airport in November.

But SRQ is still trying to recover from its biggest defection in years: AirTran Airways, which has about 30% of the total market share of passengers, announced in January that it was terminating service at SRQ. AirTran is a subsidiary of Southwest Airlines, which consolidated services nationwide.