Nearly 200,000 passengers came through Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport last month, an increase of 22 percent over May 2013, as growing tourism and business travel numbers begin to return to pre-recession levels and JetBlue completes three full months of service here.
Total passengers for 2014 were just shy of 750,000, 13 percent higher than this point in the previous year, according to numbers released by the airport.
“In terms of numbers, we’ve already had nearly 100,000 more passengers coming through the terminal this year than last,” said Lori Lynah, director of marketing and public relations for the airport.
Savannah’s load factor — the airlines’ measure of how much available passenger capacity is used — was 88 percent in May, a 6 percent increase over the same month last year.
That brings the average load factor so far this year to 83 percent.
The number of available seats last month increased 15 percent from the previous May.
“Passenger levels continue to climb as we had hoped to see, given the increase in available seats in the market,” said airport executive director Greg Kelly.
“This will serve us well in our efforts to convince the airlines to add even more capacity.”
Delta Air Lines and Delta Connection still hold the most market share at 48 percent, while the newly merged US Airways/American airline holds 26 percent, United Airlines is at 15 percent and JetBlue, which just came into the Savannah
market in February, is posting 11 percent serving New York’s JFK and Boston’s Logan airports.
The airport currently boasts 44 daily nonstop departures with service to Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C.
Relief on way
In other business, the Savannah Airport Commission, meeting Monday, approved a change order with R.B. Baker of Savannah in the amount of $594,906 for interim improvements at the intersection of Airways Boulevard and Interstate 95.
The improvements will consist of repaving the exit ramp to allow for two left-turn lanes and new traffic signals and should be complete by the end of the year,” he said.
“Right now, we’re seeing early evening backups of up to 20 minutes at that ramp, with traffic sometimes backed up onto the interstate, which is dangerous,” Kelly said. “What we’re doing here is squeezing another turn lane into the existing space. It’s a quick fix until the Department of Transportation can install a permanent new lane.”
The DOT already has committed to the project but has said it will take several years to get to it.
Meanwhile, the cost of the interim fix is being shared by the airport, the state DOT, Gulfstream Aerospace and Ben Carter Enterprises, which is building a high-end outlet mall at the exit. The airport’s share will be approximately $200,000, Kelly said.
BY THE NUMBERS
May 2013 May 2014 Change YTD 2013 YTD 2014 Change
Arrivals 78,578 94,145 19.8 percent 333,274 371,215 11.4 percent
Departures 78,557 97,711 24.3 percent 331,136 377,873 14.1 percent
LOAD FACTORS FOR MAY
American — 86.3 percent
Delta — 87.7 percent
JetBlue — 89.5 percent
United — 88.9 percent
Note: Load factor is the percentage of available seats that are filled