Home > About BNE > Press Room > 2011 Archive > August > Buffalo, Niagara Airports on Upswing

Buffalo, Niagara Airports on Upswing

by James Fink 
Wednesday, August 24 

Despite a slight dip in passengers during July, air traffic out of Buffalo Niagara International Airport is up for the first seven months of the year.

And, at Niagara Falls International Airport, passenger counts continue to increase at record levels thanks to increased service by its anchor air carrier and the response to the facility’s new terminal.

“Everything is pretty much on track,” said William Vanecek, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, director of aviation.

At Buffalo, the number of outbound passengers at the airport dropped 0.28 percent in July to 253,781 from 254,490 last year. For the January-to-July period, however, the number of outbound passengers who flew from Buffalo Niagara International Airport increased 0.72 percent to 1,508,300 this year from 1,497,540.

Vanecek attributed July’s slight drop to Continental Airlines eliminating six Buffalo to Cleveland flights and USAirways scaling back on its Buffalo to Reagan International Airport flights to the Washington area on weekends.

“JetBlue and Southwest, however, remain very strong,” Vanecek said.

Southwest, which handled 29 percent of the July passenger count, saw 74,137 fly out of Buffalo, an increase of 3.96 percent from last July’s 71,310 passenger count. Southwest flew 600 planes out of Buffalo in July.

JetBlue, the airport’s second busiest air carrier, handled 42,554 outbound passengers in July, an increase of 7.33 percent from the 39,647 outbound passengers it handled last July. JetBlue flew 418 airplanes out of Buffalo last month.

Vanecek said American Airlines is considering adding more flights to Chicago while Delta has added two new, non-stop flights to Detroit because of rising customer demand.

Meanwhile at Niagara Falls International Airport, passenger counts were up 183 percent in July to 9,183 this past July from handling 3,242 outbound passengers a year ago. For the year-to-date, outbound passenger counts have risen 175 percent, increasing to 54,283 this year from just 19,676 last year.

The increase comes from new service by Spirit Airlines and increased routes by Direct Air.

Vision Airlines, last month, announced that it was suspending service to Niagara Falls and six other cities, but Vanecek said he hopes they will restart service next summer. Vision is restructuring many of its routes as part of a new business plan.

Direct Air, starting on Nov. 18, will be offering three weekly departures to Nassau in the Bahamas and two weekly flights to San Juan. Vanecek said those additional routes will likely spike more people to fly from Niagara Falls.

“We are looking forward to that,” he said.

To handle the anticipated growth in outbound passengers, the NFTA has cut a deal with the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency to lease a small parcel next to the airport for additional parking. The lot will add 100 more parking spaces.

The airport has 500 on site parking spaces and another 1,000 it leases just across Niagara Falls Boulevard.