The number of passengers boarding flights in Chattanooga rose again this year but is likely to end 2022 still down by about 22% from the highs reached in 2019, airport officials said Monday.
Terry Hart, president of the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport Authority, told the airport board Monday that he expects Lovell Field will board nearly 430,000 passengers in all of 2022. Although up about 15% from last year, passenger enplanements are still well below the peak in 2019 when more than 554,000 persons boarded flights at the Chattanooga airport.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic limited travel and passenger boardings plunged more than 59% at Lovell Field,
Through the first 11 months of 2022, 398,101 passengers have boarded flights in Chattanooga, up 15.5% over 2021. Delta Air Lines, the biggest carrier in Chattanooga, has realized the biggest jump in business from Chattanooga with a nearly 32% jump in passenger boardings so far this year. Delta accounts for 48% of all passenger boardings in Chattanooga so far this year, according to the latest airport figures released Monday.
"We are on a good pace in December and for all of 2022 we continue to show gains," Hart said. "There are signs that there is some recovery coming with more pilots becoming available and more aircraft in the skies so we expect 2023 could be a better year."
Airlines are still struggling to find enough pilots and other staff after the pandemic weakened the airline industry when air travel virtually ground to a halt in the spring of 202o, according to The New York Times. As air travel has rebounded and airlines have rebuilt their routes, many are focusing on more profitable routes between major cities and some smaller and regional airports have lost many of the flights they used to have
Blake Poole, a vice president of the Chattanooga Airport Authority who recently pitched Chattanooga to eight airlines during an industry conference, said he hopes to develop relationships and support for additional commercial airline service to Chattanooga to help expand the number of direct-served cities offered from Lovell Field.
"As we continue to build relationships and contacts and start talking about the opportunities we offer in Chattanooga, I am confident that things will get back on track," he told the airport authority during the board's monthly meeting. "We are going to see air service come back to where it was or even better in the future."
Photo by Dave Flessner / West Star Aviation, which provides maintenance and repair work on aircraft at Lovell Field, is in the midst of a $17 million expansion of its hangar at Chattanooga's airport to expand its services and capacity. The project is seen on Monday.Hart said Chattanooga's airport should benefit from growth in both business and leisure travel as more people move to Chattanooga and businesses continue to expand in the tri-state region that Lovell Field serves with both commercial flights and general aviation. The airport is about a quarter of the way through a two-year project to expand its passenger concourse to add three more boarding gates, and other hangars and maintenance facilities are being erected at the airport to expand general aviation, aircraft maintenance and military flights.
"I think we're recovering from the pandemic and we have a bright future," Jim Hall, chairman of the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport Authority, said Monday in a year-end discussion about the future of Lovell Field. "This airport, I think, has had a very positive economic impact on our community and reflects the growth that we are seeing across our community."
Even though passenger boardings are below an all-time peak reached three years ago, the airport is expected to end 2022 with a record number of total landings and takeoffs. Chattanooga's airport has remained busy with continued growth in general aviation, especially with the expansion by West Star Aviation, which first located a maintenance facility at Lovell Field in 2015.
West Star's services include repair and maintenance of airframes, engines and auxiliary power units, avionics installations and repair, major modifications, interior refurbishment, exterior paint, accessory services and part sales and the company has expanded its Chattanooga operations to include more than 250 employees.
Each year West Star sees approximately 600 projects averaging between seven and 30 days to complete and Hart said at any given time there are about 50 aircraft being worked on by West Star in Chattanooga.
A year ago, West Star announced a $17 million investment to expand its footprint in Chattanooga -- bringing 100 more jobs to its facility. The expansion will enable West Star to increase its clientele and take on about 850 projects per year.
The Chattanooga airport also houses the Hixson flight school and Krystal Aviation, which also boosts the number of fights and pilots using the municipal airport.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340. Follow him on Twitter @DFlessner1.