Don’t let extremists mess up Vero Beach Regional Airport.
That’s what could happen if one extreme or another organizes over the next couple of months before Vero Beach City Council potentially has town hall-style meetings seeking public feedback on the airport’s future.
What began as a simple request by Councilman John Carroll to meet with the city’s Airport Commission evolved into a proposal for Three Corners-style meetings to ask the public what it thinks the future of the airport should be.
It’s overkill.
Especially since the public was asked just that ― for example, on March 18, 2024 ― as city airport consultants worked on a master plan to guide the facility’s development through 2045. That 441-page document, including a layout plan adopted by the council on Aug. 27, 2024, then updated in 2025, is online at vrbmasterplan.com/documents
American, JetBlue come; Breeze seeks more slots
The plan came out more than a year after Breeze Airways began serving the airport, ushering in a new era of commercial service that has led to the additions of JetBlue and American flights.
The growth: Breeze served 85,728 passengers in 2023; all airlines flew 259,040 in 2025. Passenger counts were up 31% over the first three months of 2026.
Plus, Breeze has asked for time slots to potentially double its daily flights starting in October, from two or three now to six or seven, Airport Director Todd Scher said.
One of those routes would be to Provo, Utah, via stops in Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., or Raleigh-Durham (North Carolina) International Airport, Breeze announced in March.
The other day, though, Breeze spokesman Ryne Williams told me via email he hadn’t heard about any planned expansion other than Provo. Scher said airlines have to give the airport three months’ notice on destinations.
Extra air traffic prompts various proposals
That number of extra flights would, by federal regulation, require the airport to add a second aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle (about $1 million) and six-person crew (about $800,00 a year), according to Scher and David Johnson, Indian River County fire-rescue chief.
Those costs would be borne by the airlines, City Manager Monte Falls said.
Still, airline service, if Breeze can find time for additional flights, is essentially capped because the airport can hold only two passenger jets at a time, Scher and Falls have said repeatedly. Potential expansion would mean dramatically retrofitting the airport and massive lease changes with companies that train pilots or serve private pilots who use the airport.
In other words, highly unlikely.
I don’t know anyone who’d like to see that, though a Deerfield Beach company building a TownePlace Suites by Marriott hotel closer to the former Dodgertown has proposed building a new terminal near there and leasing it to the city.
Vero Beach seeks ‘creature comforts’
Ideas like this concern Carroll and I. Vero Beach has a master plan. Random other proposals from entrepreneurs, like this and ones the city has had for a rental car facility and parking closer to the airport, might or might not fit into the plan.
Either way, they seem like default, piecemeal, potential long-term “solutions” to what could be short-term challenges.
In the meantime, airport staff has been reacting to the growth by altering traffic patterns and parking assignments near the terminal, renovating it to slightly increase capacity for waiting passengers, improve baggage pickup and more.
But, no, Vero Beach Regional Airport will not, at least anytime soon, have the “creature comforts” — a term Scher and Falls like to use — of even Melbourne Orlando International Airport, which often has fewer daily flights.
The shame is Melbourne, which I consider a local airport ― I’ve been going there twice monthly to transport relatives ― can’t get additional flights even though staff there is trying.
Can Melbourne, St Lucie relieve Vero Beach?
Even closer is St. Lucie County’s Treasure Coast International Airport, which, also has been seeking commercial service. In August 2024, County Commissioner Cathy Townsend suggested getting an airline would be a done deal once the airport was certified and a terminal built by sometime in 2025.
But, in an exclusive interview with TCPalm March 26, Townsend said talks to bring such service to the airport “may have broken down.”
That’s a shame. Treasure Coast and Melbourne would be the perfect relief valves for VRB.
Why?
Almost everyone I know wants VRB to remain a small regional airport.
Like everything, there are divergent views
But, I’ve heard some newcomers to town and out-of-town developers and land speculators say they’d love for it to get busier, serving even more locations.
I also see a few complaints from folks who think the airport is too busy now. The reality is it’s been busy for a long time, and commercial service, while largely unavailable from the late 1980s until the late 2010s, frequently served Vero Beach in the middle of the 20th century.
These two extreme views could dominate town hall meetings, which seem superfluous to hold so soon after the airport’s master plan process in 2024.
Holding such meetings now — and I’m usually the biggest advocate for such engagement ― would be like re-asking residents what they think the city-owned three corners at Indian River Boulevard and 17th Street should be since a lot has changed in the six years following town hall meetings for that.
Likewise, some council members’ idea of hosting unscientific online polls to determine the fate of the airport would be dangerous. Such polls, especially nowadays, easily can be hijacked by special interests.
I’m confident our five city council members know the character of the community well enough to figure out what the airport should be: a small regional airport.
If it gets into questions about whether to spend millions from city (as opposed to airport) coffers to retrofit the terminal or make other improvements, then such engagement makes sense.
Otherwise, a simple meeting with the Airport Commission ― as initially pitched by Carroll — makes the most sense.
This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman.
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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida airport growing fast. Don’t let extremists hijack it | Opinion
Reporting by Laurence Reisman, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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