This is a production of WEDU PBS Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

Tampa Bay is among the top 100 fastest growing economies in the nation.

Hasn't always been that way.

More than 50 years ago, the business and political leaders of this community made a bold $80 million investment that laid the foundation of this region's future growth.

That investment now generates nearly half $1 billion in revenue, has an estimated $14 billion annual economic impact, and supports more than 120,000 jobs.

You're about to meet the CEO of this thriving enterprise.

Next on the Suncoast Business Forum.

Suncoast Business Forum, brought to you by the financial services firm of Raymond James, offering personalized wealth management advice and banking and capital markets expertise, all with a commitment to putting client's financial well-being first.

More information is available at raymondjames.com.

Lasting impressions are very important.

In 2024 for more than 25 million, people's first and last impression of the Tampa Bay region was Tampa International Airport.

And what a great impression it was.

That's why the airport is consistently ranked number one in the nation.

Joe Lopano took over as CEO of Tampa International Airport during the Great Recession in 2011.

He navigated this vital gateway through turbulent times and good times.

After 14 years in charge, he's ready to hand off the controls in early 2025.

Joe, welcome to the Suncoast Business Forum.

Thank you Jeff.

It's great to be with you.

I'm glad you're here.

Let me read you some comments from travelers at Tampa International Airport.

Tampa International Airport is a dream.

It's a civilized airport, tailored as much to the needs of people as to the needs of airplanes.

It's one of the most convenient and pleasant airport experiences in the world.

Now, those quotes come from travelers.

As I said, some were just last week.

Some were 50 years ago.

What is the secret sauce that has enchanted travelers attempting to National airport for over 50 years?

I think, Jeff, it's a real focus on the customer experience and the guys who came before me, the guys who built the airport in the first place, believed that we should build the airport around the customer's needs and then make it able to handle all the aircraft it needs to handle.

So they had vision and courage and they went and spent money on things like monorails that would take people out to an airside that didn't exist anywhere in the world, not in China, not anywhere right here in Tampa.

We started it.

And it turns out the people loved it.

So you could park above the terminal, take a vertical escalator down and take a horizontal escalation out to the to the airside, and you're at your gate in just minutes.

And that really resonates with people.

And that's the legacy that we as the management team have inherited.

And we take it very seriously that we want to stand on their shoulders and make them proud of what we do.

In the 50 years plus, that Tampa International Airport has been here.

The population of the Tampa Bay region has tripled to over 3 million people.

The number of people using Tampa International Airport has increased six times to more than 25 million people.

How has the airport adapted to this rapid growth?

We view the Tampa International Airport as the gateway to the west coast of Florida.

We don't think of it as Tampa's airport.

We think of it as the region's airport.

And when you think more regionally in that way, you understand all the challenges that are going to come at you and you have to stay ahead of them.

So we always do a master plan, constantly looking out at forecasts.

And we've stayed ahead of the curve so far, and we were blessed with great infrastructure when we first started.

The infrastructure now is getting very congested, so there's going to be a need in the future to help us with that.

When you arrived at Tampa International Airport, it was already a very well-regarded airport.

That was in 2011, but it was also the depths of the Great Recession, something that this state hadn't seen in quite a long time.

What was your perception of the market and of the airport, and the opportunity to help move the airport out of, and the community out of the challenging period of time?

Yeah, it was an interesting time, to say the least.

the opportunity here was unbelievable.

And the airport looked tired.

I mean, it needed to be energized and so did the community, quite honestly.

Everyone was sort of down on their knees, and I came in and my team came in and we did a master plan forecast, and it was at the depths of the recession that we let contracts for over $1 billion.

So we actually pulled everybody up and had them stand up proud.

We created jobs like crazy in our region, and we gave people confidence that we could do this, that we could get international flights, that we would build this terminal.

I like to think, and I might be wrong.

I like to think that I was part of the resurrection of the city.

And so we we went from the town of no, we can't to the town of watch this.

And as soon as we started succeeding, bringing in international flights, one success after another and another, and then the community started to buy into the fact that we could be great.

And then you wind up winning hockey championships, then you wind up winning football championships and everyone rose together.

And that brings us to where we are now as one of the proudest cities in the country.

As part of your vision, you described something called an aerotropolis to the city.

What is an aerotropolis?

Aerotropolis is something that's new, new, let's say 20 years.

It's been talked about.

But what it really is, is the ability to take advantage of the assets that aviation aviation assets create.

So by having all these flights and all this activity at the airport, you suddenly have the ability to create sales of food, beverage, retail and so on.

But more than that, there's also land around the airport that can be used for valuable things like office space and so on.

So people that's an aerotropolis is is not only the aviation facility, but there are business facilities, there could be residential facilities all within easy connection of airplanes.

And as we've seen over the last 40 years, the number of people who take multiple trips a year has increased exponentially.

It's not just once a year you get dressed up and you go on a flight.

Now it's like once a week.

And so if you live close to the airport or if you work close to the airport, suddenly it becomes a value proposition for you.

In 2024, the operating budget of Tampa International Airport was about $420 million dollars.

The operating expenses were a little less than $200 million dollars.

So that's a 50% profit margin, pretty substantial.

Now, I understand you have debt service and so forth, but Tampa International Airport is very profitable.

And it's not just the airlines that are bringing in the revenue.

A third of the revenue comes from airlines.

A quarter comes from transportation and from parking.

Who knew?

And the restaurants provide almost $100 million.

Yeah.

How did you envision this blend of different revenue sources?

Well, it's a federal mandate that we be self-sufficient.

And we other airports around the country take taxpayer dollars to operate.

We do not take taxpayer dollars to operate.

So when you look at your property tax bill, you will not see a line for Tampa International Airport.

And the reason is this we are self-sustaining.

We pay all of our operating costs with operating revenues, and those revenues consist of parking.

They consist of food, beverage, retail, rental car fees, rental property rentals.

And then there's the airlines too, who pay for their space.

And every time they land, they pay us a landing fee.

So at the end of the day, that all adds up to more than $400 million.

And it's the most beautiful business model because we're completely self-sufficient.

We don't ask the mayor for money.

We run on our own.

In fact, we now we generate reserves because we're so good at making generating revenue, and the reason we do so well in generating revenue is we give people the things they want to buy.

So if you notice the concessions program, we now have the Columbia restaurant.

We have Goody Goody.

We have other things out there that are actually goody food.

And so people now come to the airport early because they like the restaurants.

We got P.F.

Chang's, we got hard Rock.

So it's not the way it was before we got a hot dog out there.

You can now have a nice meal, leave and be relaxed before your flight.

Tampa International Airport has 25 different airlines that provide domestic and international service now.

Seven of them provide 90% of that.

That service in Southwest and Delta, I think are the are the biggest.

But there are again 25 total.

How do you go about attracting the right airline that flies to the right destination to pick Tampa International Airport?

Well, that's that's a great question.

And I used to do this work on the other side of the table working for the airlines.

So I would select the markets that the airline would fly to.

And the reason that I've been successful here on this side of the table, is that we base everything we do on data and hard facts and economic reality, so we don't go and fly to South Africa and try to pitch South African airlines because they're never going to fly to Tampa, ever.

There's just not enough people.

But we will fly to Frankfurt to convince a Lufthansa to put a nonstop flight to Frankfurt that can connect to 40 other cities that are desirable for our customers.

There are certain markets that are screaming for service, and those are the markets that we go out and target the decision makers to get service there.

I'll give you an example.

San Francisco was the largest unserved market from Tampa.

Everyone had to connect to get to San Francisco.

We made that.

We made that case to United Airlines.

And they, they, they said, let's let's fly it because they believed our data, our data was the same data that they use.

And the reason I know that is because I used to be the airline guy.

So it was like when you're talking the same language and people trust you, you can get big things done.

Let's talk about your formative years, about where you grew up, about your family.

You grew up in Tarrytown, New York, right?

Tarrytown, New York, in Westchester County, a small village on the Hudson River.

12,000 people lived there.

My father was the mayor.

Um, I was an altar boy.

I was a Boy Scout.

Marched in the Memorial Day parade, you know, did all the things that that we did back in the 1950s and 60s.

And I loved it.

It was.

And I still go back all the time just because I, my family is still up there and I don't go back in the winter as much.

But I do love Westchester.

Were you a good student?

Were you involved in sports?

Did you work when you were in school?

If so, what kind of jobs did you have?

I was a good student, although I didn't study much.

I did have a job.

I had jobs, and I was a grocery person, a person that worked at Baskin-Robbins and so on.

And I played golf.

I was on the golf team, and I was a caddie and golfed, and golf was my passion at the time.

When you were young, you got interested in photography and you actually worked in different types of photography jobs over the years.

Tell us about your interest in photography and if you're still involved with photography?

Yeah, I've actually my first camera was an Instamatic Kodak Instamatic right.

And used the cartridge film.

And then I graduated to a 35 millimeter, and then I got even more interested.

So I built a darkroom, and I had a developer and all of the equipment it's been for me.

And as you said, I've had a number of different jobs.

I mean, I was a photo editor for my college, my university.

I've sold pictures to publications for profit and so on and so forth.

So I've done all the things you can do everywhere, from portrait to landscape to action photos to tragic photos, all of those things.

And it's still a huge interest to me.

And I think it goes back to just and this is a quality I really drill into my folks is to be curious.

After high school, you had several jobs that were photography related.

You also were a cab driver, a taxi cab driver.

Now, you met your wife to be Janet.

At this point, let tell us about this period of transition after high school.

I actually didn't go to college, so and I didn't have anyone pushing me to go to college, and I didn't know how to pay for college.

So I sort of said to myself, I guess I'm going to be one of those guys that stays here in the village, a local guy.

So I got a job as a cab driver and I enjoyed it very much.

Maybe it goes back to curiosity.

And then I met this woman named Janet, who I ultimately married, and she said, no, you know, you can find a way to pay for college without having a lot of money.

She said, we can get scholarships, we can get loans, we can do this.

So she gave me the pathway that I needed to be successful in this effort, and for that, I'm forever grateful.

And she's still my wife and we've been married more than 40 years.

It's been a remarkable I mean, it's like a story that you read about the great American Dream.

You got your accounting degree.

And then in 1978, you joined Pan American Airways.

Not around anymore, but it was a pretty big airline at that time.

And you started in the mail room and then started working your way up.

Tell us about that.

Well, my father worked for Pan Am for many years and he was in the accounting department.

I had a choice when I came out of college.

I could either I got an offer from a newspaper to be a photographer for Gannett newspapers or give it a shot at business.

I did not get any offers from the big eight accounting firms.

So I asked my dad.

I said, is there any opportunity for me to get involved with the airlines?

And he said, I'll ask, but it's really tight.

And even though you have a college degree, you might have to start at the bottom, maybe on the ramp or in the mailroom or somewhere.

So I got an interview and I got hired into the Teamsters Union in the mailroom in Rockley, New Jersey.

And I'll never forget my first day at work because I'm right out of college.

So I'm smarter than anybody in the world.

So I walk into the mailroom with a three piece suit on with the Wall Street Journal under my arm, and and they all laughed at me.

They really did.

And I said, don't worry, I'm going to get out of the mailroom.

And they said, yeah, let's see.

And it was only 4 or 5 years later, we had a big celebration for me as I got promoted into management and they said, no one ever gets out of the mailroom, I said, I did.

Well, you made it out of the mailroom and then you rose through Pan Am.

But Pan Am was going through challenging times.

So what was it like to be on the rise early in your career with a company once great.

That was going the other direction?

Yeah, that was disappointing.

I mean, the things that I got to see and experience with Pan Am are I'll never, ever forget.

I'm so grateful for for God to give me these, these chances.

But to see that kind of service, that kind of elegance start going away in because Pan Am was starting to lose money, was was really not fun to see.

And but I got to experience it for four years and I'll never forget it.

And it shaped me up until now.

But during that period of time when you were really looking to build your career.

There were changes going on in the airline industry that that doomed Pan Am and others.

What was going on in the airline industry that made it so challenging and competitive?

The back in the day, the number of airlines was multiple.

What they are today.

I mean, there were 30 airlines and the the barriers to entry that for the airlines were minimal.

I mean, the Boeing was basically pumping airplanes out and wanting and wanting to give them to somebody to please fly them because they don't do any good parked.

So you can get a really sweet deal on a, on a new airplane.

So entrepreneurs like Frank Lorenzo, who I wound up working for, said, okay, I'll take 6 or 10 airplanes and I'm going to fly low cost and I'm going to fly high frequency.

And you could easily get gates, you could easily get labor.

So your barriers to entry were very low.

And that that went on for 20 years.

And and then various economic spasms occurred.

And then we started to see consolidation.

So we wound up going from 30 airlines to four.

Shortly after leaving Pan Am, you went to Houston, Texas to work for Continental Airlines.

What did you learn about about operations at Continental in Houston?

I learned.

I learned a lot about a lot of things about operations.

I was the guy responsible for assigning aircraft to different markets.

So that taught me a lot about what I do today, about how markets make money or lose money, which markets are viable, which markets are not.

So that was a very, very important thing for me to learn at the time.

And then I, I was asked to start an airline within an airline, and it was known as Continental Lite at the time.

It was a really bad idea, but they knew that I could.

I could convince people to try it.

I could convince the internal customers to support it.

So we launched it, Continental Lite.

The problem was people didn't know what they were going to get.

We were getting the regular continental with first class, or were we getting Continental Lite, which is no first class and all economy, and the two really clashed with each other.

So it was a bad strategy and I was fired for it.

And it was it was not my strategy, but I was in charge of implementation.

And so that's how I exited the premises of Continental Airlines.

And that's taught me, taught me a really, really good lesson.

I think everyone who rises to a certain level has probably experienced spectacular failure at some point in their life and has found a way to be resilient and has found a way to be better than they were before.

After continental, your spectacular failure at continental, you went to work for British West Indies Airlines for a year, and then you got a call from Texas again, this time Dallas, to come work for an airport, the Dallas Fort Worth airport.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, I always liked the airport structure.

It seemed much more secure than the airline structure.

It was less prone to failure and so on and so forth.

So when, after having my spectacular failure, when Dallas Fort Worth called me, I said, well, and they said, you're the guy that can do this job.

We've been told that you can do this job.

I said, I know I can.

And so they they brought me down to talk to them.

And sure enough, I told them, I will give you at the time they were going to pay me $90,000.

I said, I will give you way more than $90,000 worth of value.

But I said, I will not work past 5:00, and on the weekends I'll be home because I'm I've already done all that.

I put in way too many hours already.

So I wanted to coach my son and watch my daughter do dance and all that kind of stuff.

And so I just said, I'll do the job, but you got to let me go at 5:00.

So I want work life balance.

And Jeff Fagin, who was my boss at the time, shook my hand and he said, you got it, brother.

And he never, never went back on his word.

And I was able to coach and live a more normal life.

And I stopped being the fast track guy, and I started being the hard worker who prioritizes family.

Dallas Fort Worth airport, your responsibility was attracting domestic and international carriers, and you were very successful at it.

What strategy did you use that allowed you to differentiate yourself and have such success.

Back in the day?

Um, people didn't did not have incentive programs, didn't have ways to make it easier for an airline to make a decision.

And, and this whole thing revolves around data.

As I said before, you have to make a compelling business case that they believe in.

Okay.

And the other thing is they have to believe you.

So you have to create relationships of trust.

And that takes years.

And when you keep on flying to Shanghai every six months or so on, people begin to say he's seriously interested in getting us, and he's making the sacrifice to come here, and he's got good data.

He makes sense.

So why not try this?

And that's how this is done.

It's done face to face, man to man, and give you the data that you need to make the right decision.

After 12 years at Dallas Fort Worth Airport back in 2011, you got a call from Tampa International Airport trying to recruit you to come be CEO.

You hadn't been CEO in Dallas, but you were recruited for a CEO job here.

Airport was going through the community was going through the Great Recession.

What did Tampa International Airport see in you?

And what did you see in Tampa International Airport?

That you were right for each other?

Yeah.

it's interesting because, um, one of the, one of the board members that I was interviewing with because I wasn't sure I wanted to come here, I was doing fine in Dallas.

And, you know, I actually took a pay cut to come here.

Uh, yeah.

Um, but I believed in this community, and I believed in the potential was amazing.

And I was in the interview with one of my board members, and I was asking the board member, well, what would you do in this situation?

What would you do in that situation?

And he's like, you're interviewing me, aren't you?

I said, yes, I am.

I'm not sure I want to come here.

And sure enough, I convinced them, you know, they asked me.

He said, Joe, why?

Why do you think you can get international flights when we're only a city of 4 or 500,000 people?

And I said, it's because this airport is not just the city's airport.

You know, as many people come from Pinellas, has come from Hillsborough.

And we got 9% of our people come from Sarasota and people come from all around the region.

So when you take the regional approach to this, a lot of things make sense.

That wouldn't have made sense otherwise.

And that's that's the way I convinced them to give me the job.

You're passionate about transportation.

How would you like to see this area deal with its transportation challenges?

You know, this is the biggest issue facing us.

And and my successor, to use the words of a congressman, the bad news about Tampa is they haven't done anything yet.

The good news is they haven't screwed anything up yet.

So I guess if you're going to be an optimist, you can say, well, you know, maybe it's good that we haven't done anything yet, but I would tell you that that's the that's the next big thing that has to be solved here.

And the technologies that are available right now, whether they be electric, vertical takeoff and landing aircraft or rubber wheel trains, various other things that exist didn't exist ten years ago.

And so now is the time.

And this this is the place to change that paradigm right now.

And um, I think with the new leaders that are coming up here in this region and get rid of some of the old thinkers that we have a chance.

In the 50 plus years since Tampa International Airport opened, there have only been three CEOs.

Tell us about your successor, Michael Stephens.

Yeah.

Michael is he's been with me for nine years.

So he has.

He likes to say he speaks fluent Lopano.

And he really does.

He gets me.

You know, he knows exactly what I'm thinking.

And he's he's just a a visionary.

And he's got experience.

He served the military.

He's been an air traffic controller.

He's been at the Hillsborough area bus transit company.

So he's got transit experience now.

He's got aviation experience.

He's testified before Congress on cybersecurity.

So he's a very well-rounded executive.

And I think he's going to do just fine.

I mean, my expectations are high.

And Michael knows how I operate, and I plan to be on the sidelines cheering for him and the team.

And I really want this team to be successful.

Well, Joe, I'd like to thank you so much for being our guest today.

Oh, it's my pleasure.

I really enjoyed it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If you'd like to see this program again or any of the CEO profiles in our Suncoast Business Forum archive, you can find them on the web at wedu.org/sbf.

Thanks for joining us for the Suncoast Business Forum.