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Traffic At St. Pete Airport Drops 75% In September

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By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 8, 2008

Updated: 10/08/2008 02:05 pm

CLEARWATER - Passenger traffic at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport declined 75 percent to 9,220 passengers in September, airport officials said this morning.

The decline is largely attributed to USA3000 Airlines discontinuing service at the Pinellas airport in August, citing a need to trim flights because of excessive fuel costs.

In addition, Allegiant Air made seasonal cuts, but the Las Vegas-based low-cost carrier will resume service to 12 destinations by November. Allegiant also will add four nonstop routes along with the three destinations with continued service during the summer.

"The growth of Allegiant has been very encouraging," airport director Noah Lagos said.

The airport has served 623,756 passengers year to date. Lagos projects that by year's end, St. Petersburg-Clearwater International will have served about 725,000 passengers compared with 747,369 a year ago.

"You can see we will be about holding steady depending on the final end of year's numbers or very slightly down," Lagos said. "I think this is quite remarkable since USA3000 departed in mid-August and Allegiant drastically reduced their schedule for September to Nov. 15."

Most airports nationwide are showing ridership losses because of the economic crisis.

Tampa International Airport previously reported a 9.3 percent decline in departing passengers in August to 703,883. Officials cited the poor economy and a reduction in flights by airlines seeking to save fuel costs, The airport generally serves as many inbound as outbound passengers each month.

Orlando International Airport reported a 6.4 percent decline in departing passengers in August to 1.5 million. Domestic travel was off 7.9 percent to 1.4 million, but the favorable currency exchange for overseas residents has bolstered international travel.

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