Chattanooga Airport, fueled by new flights and larger planes, has in its sight an all-time high in passenger boardings in 2024 if traffic stays on course, an official said Monday.
“Our goal is to break our record from 2019,” April Cameron, the airport’s chief executive, said at a meeting of the airport authority as she upgraded an estimate this summer that Lovell Field would approach the record mark.
In 2019, the airport set a 554,000 passenger milestone, but boardings this year are up nearly 13% through the first nine months over the same period in 2023, figures show.
Traffic this year has benefited from new nonstop flights between Chattanooga and Las Vegas, Cameron said. Also, American Airlines has bolstered service to its Dallas hub with more flights on larger aircraft, she said.
Not included in the latest boarding figures are New York City nonstops on Delta Air Lines. Those flights resumed earlier this month after a nearly four-year furlough due to the pandemic.