Passenger traffic on the rise at Kalamazoo/Battle Creek Airport

4.12.16

KALAMAZOO, MI – It’s take-off time for passenger traffic at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport.
The local air terminal expects to see higher numbers of people traveling to and from the 5235 Portage Road airport as more students and families took spring vacations in late March and early April during spring break.

“We expect the numbers to be up,” said Airport Director David Reid. “We had a few bad weather days in March due to the wind primarily. But we know from talking to our airline partners during the lead-up time to spring break, that they were either sold out or overbooked. So they expect their numbers to be up pretty sharply for spring break.”

Stronger numbers for March and April are expected to complement ascending numbers for January and February. Those are attributed to the return of daily air service in Kalamazoo by United Airlines.

“Directly it’s responsible because of all of the new United passengers adding to our count,” said Airport Director David Reid.
After a six-year absence from the local airport, United Airlines resumed flights in December to and from its hub at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.

January passenger traffic at Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International was up 9 percent over January of 2015. Approximately 20,254 passenger trips were made out of and into the airport during the month, versus 18,502 during the same month a year ago.

Passenger traffic in February was up 33 percent from the same month a year ago. Approximately 22,116 trips were made during that month, versus 16,683 in February 2015.

United sells three daily ExpressJet departures – with a morning flight at 6:50 a.m., a mid-afternoon flight at 2:56 p.m. and an evening flight at 6:22 p.m. Inbound flights from Chicago are scheduled for 12:24, 3:50 and 9 p.m.
United’s regional affiliate accounted for more than 1,600 additional departures (individual trips departing Kalamazoo) in each of the two months, as well as more than 1,500 additional arrivals (individual passenger trips arriving ) in each of those months.

Reid said there has also been an indirect benefit of the resurgent air service.
“Indirectly the other airlines have increased their activities to match United’s presence here in Kalamazoo,” Reid said.
He said Delta has, for instance, increased the number of daily flights it has scheduled to seven. There previously were five. Delta’s regional affiliates fly to Detroit rather than to Chicago like United but Reid said, “It’s still about maintaining their market share in Kalamazoo, even though it’s going to a different city.”

Credit and read entire article here: http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2016/04/passenger_traffic_is_on_the_ri.html