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Buffalo Air Traffic Slower, Fares Fly Low

Business First of Buffalo - by James Fink

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Route adjustments by several air carriers at Buffalo Niagara International Airport resulted in the facility seeing a drop in passengers during June.

According to statistics compiled by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, passenger counts were off 4.28 percent in June and 2.03 percent for the year — both reflections of national trends by airlines to adjust and, sometimes, cut back service.

Niagara Falls International Airport, which is also operated by the NFTA, saw passenger counts increase by 79.5 percent — a result of the opening of its passenger terminal in December and increased routes by its sole scheduled carrier, Direct Air. The airport handled 16,435 outbound passengers through the first half of the year, compared with 9,155 passengers last year.

Buffalo Niagara International Airport, which handles service from eight major carriers, saw 213,695 people fly out of the Cheektowaga facility in June, compared with 223,242 for the same period in 2009.

For the first half of the year, the airport handled 1,243,050 outbound passengers compared with 1,268,772 during 2009’s first six months. The airport is on pace to handle 4.97 million passengers this year. If so, that would mark the first time in five years passenger traffic fell below the 5 million passenger mark.

However, the fall months tend to be busier and NFTA officials are confident the coveted 5 million passenger mark will be broken again this year.

JetBlue, for instance, increased its weekly outbound total by 11 flights, including adding 8 more between Buffalo and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Delta Airlines has added six new flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Delta is the airport’s second busiest carrier, handling 19 percent of all outbound flights. The airline had 39,067 outbound passengers from Buffalo in June, a decrease of 7 percent from last year.

Southwest Airlines remains the airport’s busiest air carrier, handling 25 percent of all outbound flights. The airline saw 58,741 people use one of its flights in June, an increase of 6.3 percent from June 2009.

US Air, the airport’s third-busiest carrier, handled 35,079 outbound passengers, down 5.7 percent from last June. The airline accounted for 17 percent of the airport’s outbound flights.

JetBlue saw 30,532 people fly out of Buffalo on one of its flights, down 21.15 percent from last June. JetBlue also handled 17 percent of the outbound flights.

Other carrier statistics include:

• United handled 20,197 outbound passengers, down 6 percent from June 2009. United was the airport’s fifth-busiest carrier, with 10 percent of the outbound flights.

• Continental Airlines, the sixth-busiest carrier, handled 12,496 outbound passengers, up 2.97 percent. The airline accounted for 5 percent of all outbound flights.

• AirTran saw a 10.6 percent drop in passengers between June 2009 and this past June. It handled 10,789 passengers, good for 5 percent of the airport’s outbound traffic.

• American Airlines reported a 66.7 percent increase in passengers in June. It handled 6,418 outbound passengers — equal to 2 percent of BNIA’s outbound flights. Last year, it handled 3,873 passengers.

Canada remains a major source of passenger traffic at the airport. NFTA statistics show that Southern Ontario residents make up 37 percent of its traffic count, identical to the number of Erie and Niagara county residents who use the airport. Rochester, Genesee and Monroe County residents make up 19 percent.

Meanwhile, a federal government report on air fares noted Buffalo remains one of the nation’s lowest-priced cities to fly from, costing 17.2 percent below the national average in the first three months of the year. That puts the area 87th out of 100 U.S. cities.

The average Buffalo fare in fist quarter 2010 was $271.42, up 6.5 percent from $254.84 a year ago. The national average rose 4.7 percent in the past year to $328.12 from $313.30.

The figures were released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

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