Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport passenger boardings soared 12.8 percent in September as Delta Air Lines has added more seats out of Lovell Field, officials said Monday.
Airport Chief Executive Terry Hart said the airlines serving Chattanooga, which now number three at Lovell Field with the merger of US Airways into American Airlines, reported higher boardings last month over a year ago.
“It’s been very positive,” he said about the boardings increase, which could hit an annual record for the second consecutive year at the airport. For the year through September, boardings are 12.9 percent above a year ago to 289,286 passengers, according to airport figures.
Hart said at a meeting of the Airport Authority that preliminary October numbers look strong in terms of customer bookings. Hart said Delta added 400 seats to the Chattanooga market the first week of October by increasing the size of aircraft out of the city. The next week also was up in numbers of seats, he said.
Dan Jacobson, the Airport Authority chairman, said the higher seating capacity helps “lift the airport to new heights.”