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BNIA Traffic up in April

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

by James Fink

In what officials hope is a sign of a turnaround, passenger traffic at Buffalo Niagara International Airport rose in April — the first time in three months.

The Cheektowaga facility saw a 2.63 percent increase in outbound passenger traffic in April, rising to 232,831 passengers this year from 226,857 passengers in April 2009. The increase was the first since January.

Yet, while the number of people using the airport has increased, airlines are still being cautious with their flight schedules as the national economy remains weakened. There are approximately a dozen less weekly flights leaving the airport than one year ago. The airport handles 729 weekly flights.

Still, most of the airplanes flying out of Buffalo Niagara International Airport are leaving at or near 100 percent capacity.

“The bad news is that some flights may not be coming back, but the good news the airplanes leaving here are leaving full,” said William Vanecek, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority director of aviation.

Southwest remains the airport’s busiest carrier, handling 28 percent of the passenger count. In April, the airline saw 65,967 people fly out of the airport on one of its flights, a 1.6 percent increase from April 2009 when 64,922 people used a Southwest flight.

This month, Southwest added seven additional weekly flights to Baltimore and five more to Chicago.

USAirways, the airport’s second busiest carrier, reported a nine percent increase in outbound passenger counts, increasing from 38,908 last April to 52,540 this past April.

USAirways, recently, added seven more weekly flights to Charlotte.

JetBlue, the third busiest carrier, saw a 4.5 percent increase in passenger count - rising from 35,087 in April 2009 to 36,665 this year.

Other airline statistics for April are:

• United Airlines — down 4.16 percent to 20,191 passengers from 21,068 outbound passengers.

• Delta/Northwest — up 1.8 percent, increasing to 36,393 passengers from 35,750 outbound passengers.

• American Airlines — up 52.21 percent, rising to 6,029 passengers from 3,961 outbound passengers. American added several new flights in April.

• Continental Airlines — a slight 0.8 percent increase, going from 12,360 outbound passengers to 12,459 passengers.

• AirTran — reported a 14 percent drop to 12,327 passengers from 14,334 outbound passengers.

Through the first four months of the year, the airport has handled 803,181 outbound passengers, an 0.8 percent drop from 2009 when it handled 810,217 outbound passengers.

Read more: BNIA traffic up in April - Business First of Buffalo