Airlines canceled 40 flights at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport in February, four times the number scratched in the same month a year ago, officials said Monday.
Bad wea-ther and reduced flights by two key carriers played a large part in Lovell Field passenger traffic falling over 16 percent in the month compared to February 2009, said Mike Landguth, airport president.
Also, Mr. Landguth said some canceled flights may have been due to a planned new U.S. Department of Transportation rule restricting to three hours the time passengers may sit on an airplane waiting for take-off.
“It looks like what the airlines are starting to do is they’re voicing displeasure about the requirement,” he said of the rule slated to go into effect in April.
Airline officials have said they’d cancel flights rather than risk fines.
Still, Mr. Landguth said no one should be required to sit on an airplane for a long period of time waiting for departure.
Airport Authority member Jim Hall, a frequent air traveler, said he is happy to hear that sentiment.
He added that “I still feel optimistic about future growth” at the airport, particularly with Volkswagen’s new auto assembly plant coming on line in about a year.
Meanwhile, Allegiant Air’s boardings fell 49 percent in the month. American Eagle traffic dropped 21 percent, figures show.
Mr. Landguth said Allegiant cut capacity in February in Chattanooga from 33 flights to 17. He said the airline is feeling competitive pressure at other airports and aiding flights there. Mr. Landguth said he didn’t know if the Allegiant capacity reduction will continue.
The airport official also said American Eagle cut a flight into Dallas-Fort Worth.
The boardings drop is a reversal from 2009, when traffic grew 3 percent over 2008 as Lovell Field posted the third highest mark in the airport’s recorded history.
Boardings of 310,414 last year were just 790 passengers off the airport’s all-time high of 311,204 in 1993, according to the airport.
Mr. Landguth cited a 17 percent drop in average fares out of Chattanooga last year over 2008, along with area economic growth.
Mike Pare, the deputy Business editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, has worked at the paper for 27 years. In addition to editing, Mike also writes Business stories and covers Volkswagen, economic development and manufacturing in Chattanooga and the surrounding area. In the past he also has covered higher education. Mike, a native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida Atlantic University. he worked at the Rome News-Tribune before ...
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