Fort Smith airport passenger travel down more than 10%

Fort SmithNews on the Wire

by The City Wire staff ([email protected]) July 8, 2009 9:58 am 54 views 

Enplanements at the Fort Smith Regional Airport were down 6.5% in June, and are down 11.1% for the year.

June saw 8,166 boardings out of Fort Smith, compared to 8,739 in June 2008, according to figures published by the airport. For the first six months of the year, enplanements total 40,419, down 11.1% from the 45,492 in the same period of 2008.

The Fort Smith Regional Airport lost in June its direct Delta connection to the Atlanta airport. The loss is a result of the acquisition of Northwest Airlines by Delta.

American Eagle Airlines operates five flights a day — all connecting to Dallas-Fort Worth — out of Fort Smith. Delta/Northwest has three flights a day to Memphis.

American Eagle Airlines reported that its June traffic systemwide had 1.45 million enplanements in June, down 6.7% from June 2008, according to figures from the company. Year-to-date, American Eagle enplanements in its system are down 10.2%.

The Air Transport Association is predicting airline travel with dip 7% between June 1 and Aug. 31, a decline of about 150,000 travelers a day. According to the May 15 ATA statement, approximately 195 million passengers are expected to fly this summer on U.S. airlines, down from 209 million during the summer months of 2008.

“The main driver behind the anticipated drop in passengers traveling this summer is the ongoing global recession, which continues to crimp demand,” ATA President and CEO James C. May, said in the statement “The weak economy has forced additional aircraft out of the marketplace, so despite fewer travelers, planes will remain near full. Even with fewer flights and the airlines’ heightened level of preparedness for summer travel, we remain concerned that delays may be inevitable due to the combination of an aging air traffic control system and convective weather period.”

Passenger enplanements at the Fort Smith Regional Airport totaled 87,030 in 2008, down 12.2% from the 99,127 enplanements in 2007. The 2008 traffic total is the lowest at the airport in the past 10 years.