Tampa International Airport is located 6 miles west of Tampa, in the North shore of the Tampa Bay, which was the birthplace of commercial airline service when pioneer aviator Tony Jannus flew the first scheduled commercial airline flight in the world, from St Petesburgh, Florida, to Tampa, using a Benoist Flying Boat.

Initially named Drew Field Municipal Airport, Tampa International Airport served 16.8M passengers during 2012 on almost 190,000 flying operations.