San Francisco Airport Among Three Worst Hit in Country

January 12, 2004

San Francisco Airport Among Three Worst Hit in Country

San Francisco Chronicle, CA

San Francisco International Airport was one of three
large airports hardest hit by a national decline in
passenger business that started in late 2000, a
federal transportation report shows. 

The worst drops in seat scheduling from December 2000
through December 2003 were at airports in St. Louis,
Pittsburgh and San Francisco. Passenger business
dropped by 59 percent in St. Louis, by 34 percent in
Pittsburgh and by 28 percent in San Francisco. Los
Angeles International Airport wasn't far behind, with
a 23 percent drop. 

But those airports weren't alone, according to the
survey, released last week by the U.S. Department of
Transportation. 

Of the 31 largest airports in the United States, only
three saw business increase during that three-year
period, the report said. Scheduled passenger seating
in Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) jumped by 16 percent, at New
York's Kennedy Airport by 7 percent and at Las Vegas
by 1 percent. 

The airline industry began seeing declines in business
before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when the
entire industry took a nose dive. 

SFO officials began seeing drops in the spring of 2000
when the "dot-com industry fell apart," said airport
spokesman Mike McCarron. "We started to come back a
little bit in 2001. Then Sept. 11 hit. The whole Bay
Area economy soured." 

Airlines were hurt further by declines in business
travel, which lagged through an anemic economy, last
year's fears over the SARS epidemic, and the U.S.-led
war against Iraq. 

After SARS broke out, traffic between Asia and San
Francisco plummeted by 40 percent between May and
June, McCarron said. Most of that business has since
bounced back, he said. 

Low-fare airlines performed well during the decline,
with some companies even expanding their market share
by as much as 11 percent, the report said. Overall,
low-fare carriers, including regional and commuter
operators, accounted for 46 percent of all domestic
air service. 

Southwest Airlines posted a profit of $185 million and
JetBlue reported a profit of $54 million during the
third quarter of 2003. 

In the same quarter, Continental Airlines, American
Airlines, US Airways and Delta Airlines, among the
larger carriers, reported losses of $54 million to
$175 million on domestic operations. United Airlines,
which uses San Francisco airport as one of its primary
venues, reported a modest domestic operating profit of
$1 million for the third quarter of 2003. 

 

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