Opinion by Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida
At the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce annual breakfast this week, new Chair Eddie Gonzalez Loumiet delivered exactly the kind of message this community needs right now. Be bold. Be positive. Be innovative. Stop thinking small.
That challenge applies across Tallahassee’s economy. But there may be no place where it applies more urgently — or more visibly — than Tallahassee International Airport.
For years, we’ve heard about “leakage”: residents and visitors driving to Jacksonville, Orlando, or other airports to save money or gain access to better flight options. We study it. We lament it. We pass subsidy programs meant to lure airlines.
And yet leakage persists.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth. You don’t beat leakage by pretending Tallahassee can out-Atlanta Atlanta or out-Orlando Orlando. You beat leakage by making flying out of Tallahassee so attractive and convenient that bypassing it feels irrational.
That requires a shift in mindset. Less airline-first. More passenger-first.
Start with the simplest, boldest move
Free parking at TLH
The city currently collects roughly $6 million a year in airport parking revenue, while simultaneously seeking subsidies to airlines in hopes of adding or retaining routes. In other words, we charge our own residents and visitors to fund incentives for someone else.
That’s backwards.
Free parking instantly lowers the cost and stress of choosing TLH. It sends a clear signal that Tallahassee values convenience and respects travelers’ time. It makes the local airport the default choice, not the one you talk yourself into after doing math.
Free parking shouldn’t be an incentive. It should be the baseline.
Move to all-local vendors
Every traveler has seen the tired airport gift shop — the same mugs, the same shirts, the same forgettable clutter.
TLH should do the opposite.
Why not intentionally recruit local businesses to fill those spaces, even if it means accepting lower rent or breaking even? Imagine browsing books from Midtown Reader before boarding. Coffee from Lucky Goat, Red Eye, or Ground Ops. Breakfast offerings from Canopy Road or Earley’s. Local brands, local pride, and local confidence.
The point isn’t maximizing concession revenue. It’s maximizing loyalty and identity. The airport is the first and last impression of a city. Right now, TLH doesn’t look like Tallahassee. It should.
Speaking of local vendors, the amount of local art that could be displayed at the airport is endless – it should be constantly rotating in and out.
Create a sense of urgency on behalf of customers
Fast retrieval of luggage should be the highest priority. Communicate to customers a target time for luggage delivery. Then, measure it. Then publish the results. Then work on maintaining good numbers and improving poor ones.
Add more generic EV charges
They are overallocated to Tesla’s, which are losing market share. No electric vehicle should ever be unable to charge while parking at TLH.
Lean into early mornings instead of ignoring them
Early morning departures are a fact of life at TLH. Instead of pretending otherwise, design around them.
Offer free local coffee for one hour — from 5:00 to 6:00 a.m. Partner with Tallahassee roasters. It’s inexpensive, humane, and unforgettable to anyone navigating the terminal half-awake.If somebody wants a fancy latte, they can pay for that, but a plain cup o’ joe is on the house.
Small gestures matter most when people are tired, stressed, and short on time.
Communicate like a service, not a press office
When flights are delayed by weather or TSA lines back up, travelers don’t just want information. They want clarity, reassurance, and honesty.
That means investing in communications as a core service.
Tallahassee should have an airport app that actually matters. Live parking availability. TSA wait times. Gate changes. Weather explanations in plain English. Push alerts when things change.
Many TLH flights leave very early in the morning. Design for that reality. Between 4:30 and 7:00 a.m., the app should default to a calm, simplified mode: gate confirmation, boarding countdown, coffee availability. No clutter. No guesswork.
And for those picking people up, offer a simple but transformative feature: text alerts for wheels-down, baggage carousel start, and passenger exit. Less circling. Less congestion. Less frustration.
Compete on care, not scale
Tallahassee will never win a volume contest with Orlando or a route contest with Atlanta. That’s fine.
What TLH can win is the experience contest.
It can be the easiest airport in Florida to use. The least stressful. The most honest. The one that respects your time and treats you like a neighbor, not a transaction.
And it’s not like it hasn’t been done before:
Portland built a national reputation by showcasing local businesses and requiring street pricing, and Jacksonville – one of TLH’s prime competitors — is rewarding travelers with free parking through a frequent parker program
Leakage doesn’t disappear because of one new route or one more subsidy vote. It disappears when enough people decide, again and again, that flying out of Tallahassee is simply the smartest, fastest and most pleasant option.
Eddie Gonzalez Loumiet challenged Tallahassee to be bold. Making TLH a truly passenger-first airport would be a great place to start.