"Baton Rouge airport's business jumps after Hurricane Katrina"

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Airport's business jumps after Hurricane Katrina
The Associated Press


BATON ROUGE (AP) - Hurricane Katrina, which crippled commercial air flights
into New Orleans, translated into a record amount of business for the Baton
Rouge Metropolitan Airport, airport officials said.
 
The numbers of passengers, car rentals and restaurant sales has increased
dramatically at Metro Airport, along with the biggest effect has been the
amount of freight and mail the airport handles. 

Air-shipping giants FedEx and DHL started new operations in Baton Rouge
after the New Orleans airport was crippled. 

"Katrina came, and they were forced to come here, and now they like it and
want to stay," City-Parish Aviation Director Anthony Marino said. 

FedEx has resumed its operations at the New Orleans airport, but Marino said
the shipping company is planning to stay in Baton Rouge. Marino said the
Federal Aviation Administration had already allocated $2.1 million to build
a new cargo facility at Metro Airport, but recently agreed to expand the
grant to $4.8 million. 

So far, FedEx, DHL and their subcontractors have brought about 100 jobs to
Baton Rouge, he said. 

Passenger counts at Metro Airport for 2005 soared to 523,417, a 93% increase
over the previous year. About half of the airport's total passenger traffic
for 2005 occurred after Hurricane Katrina. 

Gross sales reported by Creative Host, the vendor operating the airport
restaurants, were almost $1.4 million last year, compared with $751,463 in
2004. Car rentals totaled $28.1 million in 2005, compared with $11.8 million
in 2004.


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