Q-C airport still breaking its records

Font Size:

By Jennifer DeWitt | Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:11 PM CDT | () comments

Last month’s cold and snowy weather sent a record number of area passengers in search of warmer climates — pushing the Quad-City International Airport to another record.

Bruce Carter, the airport’s aviation director, announced Tuesday that in February the airport saw 37,170 departing, or enplaned, passengers — an increase of 2,629 passengers over the previous record, set in 2007. Arrivals, or deplanements, for the month were up 1,510 from a year ago to 35,377.

“When the cold wintry conditions continue, people will choose to travel to warmer destinations,” he said. Carter also cited gasoline prices and competitive air fares for the boost in air travel.

AirTran Airways led the carriers with 10,362 enplaned passengers — a 61 percent increase over a year ago. It was followed by United Express with 9,032 enplanements, which was down 11 percent from the 10,196 enplanements last February.

Northwest Airlink ranked third with 8,091 enplanements despite having one less daily Memphis flight in its schedule last month. The flight has since returned to the schedule, airport officials said.

American Eagle enplaned 4,719 passengers in February, just ahead of Delta Connection, which carried 4,516 passengers.

Carter said American Eagle will return its second Dallas-Forth Worth flight to the schedule April 7 with a 4:30 p.m. arrival and 4:55 p.m. departure. “There are many international business travelers who rely on the Dallas-Fort Worth connections into Mexico, and South and Latin America,” he added.

The airport’s February record as well as the new record it set in January was described as a surprise by Carter, who in December predicted that passenger numbers would be down in the first quarter of 2008.

But from the looks of the airport’s parking lot — which has been bursting at the seams the past week with spring break travelers, March’s passenger numbers also are off to a great start.

Year-to-date, the airport’s total enplanements are up 5 percent to 74,364 — up from 71,060 enplanements for the same period last year. Total passengers — enplanements and deplanements combined — are up 4 percent from 139,125 in 2007 to 144,462 for the first two months of 2008.

In a survey of the parking lot conducted Monday, Carter said the airport is continuing to widen its reach across eastern Iowa and western Illinois. He said the 2,100 vehicles parked in the lot represented 31 states as well as a few provinces in Canada.

Of the vehicles parked in the airport lot, 300 were from Johnson County in Iowa, 115 from its neighboring Linn County and 64 hailed from Black

Hawk County (Waterloo). All three counties are closer to the airport’s main rival, the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids.

Carter said low air fares also are drawing collegiate groups from Iowa City and beyond. He said 75 members of the University of Iowa marching band flew out of the Quad-City airport as well as the University of Northern Iowa baseball team and the University of Iowa women’s rowing team.

With an influx of spring break travelers in March, Carter said the airport has been forced to open up its overflow parking area to accommodate the added vehicles. The airport is continuing to encourage travelers to have someone drop them off or to take a taxi or shuttle while parking is at capacity.

The airport has plans to expand its parking this summer by about 380 spots, he said. “If we get more service that probably will not be enough. We have to think long-term on this.”

Jennifer DeWitt can be contacted at (563) 383-2318 or jdewitt@qctimes.com.