TAMPA, Fla. — You wouldn’t think a small light shining in the middle of the day would mean much.

What You Need To Know

  •  Smaller airports around the Tampa Bay area are fully operational following Hurricanes Helene and Milton

  •  On Davis Islands, Peter O. Knight Airport saw lots of damage through Helene's flooding and Milton's wind

  •  After weeks repairing hangar doors, terminal flooring and runway electrical equipment, operations are essentially back to normal

But Myles Parris, the senior manager for general aviation operations and maintenance for Tampa International Airport, sees a beacon of progress coming from hard work.

“This is a great accomplishment for us back up and running,” he said.

Parris oversees the smaller airports around Tampa Bay, like at Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Islands.

The light shining in the middle of the day is next to the runways at the airport and is a major accomplishment because, for the first time in weeks, nighttime landings and takeoffs can happen at this airport.

“Over 350 light fixtures and also our 45 taxiway signs as well got impacted due to flooding,” Parris said.

Peter O. Knight airport is right up against the water, so when Helene came to the area, nearly the entire airport was underwater.

“Three to four feet,” Parris said. “And they left watermarks, which have now been removed through the cleaning process.”

And that process had to continue because of Hurricane Milton.

Only that storm wasn’t a water problem — it was a wind problem.

Gusts were so strong that it damaged hangar doors and parts of a terminal’s roofing.

“I was just astonished, like, how are we going to clean up all the debris and just correct all the damages we have?” said Parris.

But, according to Parris, they had a contingency plan for storm damage and folks there immediately got to work.

“It took about three or four days just to ensure that the taxiways and runways were safe for aircraft to depart and arrive,” Parris said.

With nearly 120 aircraft based there and 99 total hangars, it’s a lot of work.

But they replaced damaged hangar doors and removed damaged flooring inside one of the terminals.

Having all of this done in time for the holidays has been gratifying for folks, like Parris.

“This is something we hadn’t experienced before,” he said. “So, it was awesome seeing all our team put together, our maintenance guys out here in the department that office staff, International all teamed up together and got this, in record time.”

With Thanksgiving week being such a busy time to travel, Parris is thankful that after all this hard work, he can see the light.

Elsewhere, Parris says Tampa Executive Airport had major damage where they had to condemn one of its hangars and Plant City Airport received storm damage too.

He says Plant City is fully operational and Tampa Executive is close to full operations too.