"Airport passenger volume dips in California's Central Valley"

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Airport passenger volume dips in Central Valley
.  Three of six airports see drop 
.  Stockton has California's second largest increase - by percentage
The Central Valley (CA) Business Times


There was a tiny bit more elbow room in the security lines in Central Valley
airports last year, according to passenger volume figures released Friday by
the Federal Aviation Administration.
 
Three of the Valley's airports - including the two largest - saw slightly
fewer passengers than in 2009. 

Three others saw increases, including the state's second largest increase by
percent, and its smallest - 40 passengers.

In all, 2010 saw 5,203,248 passengers pass through the Valley's six airports
served by regularly scheduled airlines compared to 5,220,747 in 2009.

Sacramento International Airport, which opened a new terminal earlier this
month after a "Big Build" that stretched through 2010, saw a slight decrease
in passengers in 2010, according to the report. The FAA says 4,424,279
passengers used the airport last year, compared to 4,460,600 in 2009, a
decrease of 0.81 percent.

Sacramento was the 39th busiest airport in the country in 2010, swapping
places with Nashville, Tenn., which had been 39th in 2009 but saw its
passenger volume surpass Sacramento's in 2010.

Passenger volume dropped more sharply at the Central Valley's second-busiest
airport, Fresno Yosemite International. The FAA report says there were
569,879 passengers using the Fresno airport in 2010, compared to 580,203 in
2009, a drop of 1.78 percent.

Fresno was the nation's 110th busiest airport last year in terms of
passenger volume.

Coming in as the country's 214th busiest airport, Bakersfeld's Meadows Field
recorded an increase in passenger volume in 2010. It had 111,699 passengers
for the year, up by 8.38 percent over 2009's 103,067 passengers.

Stockton Metropolitan Airport, served by just one airline - Allegiant -
showed one of the largest percentage increases of any airport in California
with 50,632 passengers compared to 28,368 in 2009, an increase of 78.48
percent.

The increase vaulted the airport to the nation's 266th busiest.

The ski resort of Mammoth Lakes had the largest percentage increase - 221.81
percent - with 19,814 airline passengers last year compared to 6,157 the
year before.

Modesto's City County-Harry Sham Field saw 23,487 airline passengers, a
decrease of 7.08 percent from 2009's 25,277.

Chico Municipal Airport boarded 40 more passengers last year than in 2009 -
23,272 compared to 23,232, an increase of 0.17 percent.

Figures for Visalia were not available.

Putting Central Valley airport use in 2010 in perspective, despite its
slight year-over-year drop in passenger volume, Sacramento's airport had
more than 3.6 million more passengers than all other Central Valley airports
combined.

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