First I see
this story from the Austin Business Journal
Quote:
Passenger traffic at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport rose 3 percent in April and cargo traffic saw an even bigger increase.
More than 832,450 passengers traveled through the Austin airport in April with Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines posting significant increases over April 2007.
Air cargo for the month totaled 18.3 million lbs., up 7 percent from April 2007, led by a 27 percent increase in ABX Air Inc. cargo and a 22 percent increase in UPS cargo.
General aviation operations at ABIA increased 3 percent.
So far this year, nearly 2.9 million passengers have traveled through the airport, a 5.5 percent increase over the same four-month period in 2007.
Air cargo for the year is up 12 percent and general aviation has increased 6.5 percent.
www.ci.austin.tx.us/austinairport
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Then I see
this blurb in the Austin Chronicle's Naked City section:
Quote:
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• Passenger travel at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport dropped 3% in April compared to the same month last year. That's Bergstrom's first drop and probably the initial sign of an economic downturn at the airport, the Austin Aviation Department's Shane Harbinson told the Airport Advisory Commission Tuesday night. Going into the next year's operating budget, Harbinson said, the airport anticipates that airline mergers could also lead to a loss of four gates under the worst-case scenario. Despite that, the airport still anticipates that revenue will be up 2% next year. – Kimberly Reeves
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Gotta love the media. Neither story is entirely accurate, although the Austin Business Journal is "more" accurate than the Austin Chronicle.
ABIA's
Aviation Activity Report for April shows that we actually had 747,509 passengers, an increase of 3.06% over April 2006's passenger totals of 725,293.
The "more than 832,450" passengers reported by the ABJ is actually the airport's current all-time monthly passenger record that was set back in July. Other than that, their story is correct.
I don't know where the Austin Chronicle got their info. They either looked at the activity report wrong or else attended an aviation advisory meeting where either wrong information was given out or they misunderstood what was said.
BTW, I'm guessing that the Austin Chronicle's report that
the airport anticipates that airline mergers could also lead to a loss of four gates under the worst-case scenario. refers to currently occupied gates becoming vacant and available for other carriers. I don't necessarily see that as being a bad thing - especially if a legacy airline gives up a gate and it's picked up by a low-fare carrier.
I personally think our traffic will continue to rise through the end of the summer. Most of the recently announced flights that will be discontinued won't happen until late August/early September and the new flights that were added in May weren't operating last summer, so we have more seats available than last year.
However, if we do have a drop in passenger traffic in the fall due to a sour economy and/or airlines reducing service here, I wonder how that would affect the plans for the East Concourse expansion.
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