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Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Commercial jet traffic, fligh cutbacks, and higher airfares are causing a plunge in traffic at the ABQ Sunport, written by the ABQ Journal.....
"JetBlue debuts in Albuquerque next month, giving travelers a daily, nonstop flight between the Duke City and New York City.
But that’s about the only sunny news coming out of the Albuquerque International Sunport these days.
Passenger traffic at the state’s largest airport has declined each of the last five years with a 19.4-percent dip from 2007 to 2012. The Sunport has also seen a steep decline in the number of daily departures and has lost non-stop service to a dozen destinations since 2008.
This year isn’t looking much better — year-to-date passenger numbers are 12.1 percent lower than the same period in 2012, the kind of drop officials say hasn’t been seen since the aftermath of 9/11"
Commercial jet traffic, fligh cutbacks, and higher airfares are causing a plunge in traffic at the ABQ Sunport, written by the ABQ Journal.....
"JetBlue debuts in Albuquerque next month, giving travelers a daily, nonstop flight between the Duke City and New York City.
But that’s about the only sunny news coming out of the Albuquerque International Sunport these days. Passenger traffic at the state’s largest airport has declined each of the last five years with a 19.4-percent dip from 2007 to 2012. The Sunport has also seen a steep decline in the number of daily departures and has lost non-stop service to a dozen destinations since 2008.
This year isn’t looking much better — year-to-date passenger numbers are 12.1 percent lower than the same period in 2012, the kind of drop officials say hasn’t been seen since the aftermath of 9/11"
In addition to many of Southwest's cuts, several routes have lost much of their mainline service in favor of regional jets. Such routes include United's ABQ-IAH or American's ABQ-ORD. For a while US Airways' ABQ-PHX also lost mainline service, although it has since been brought back.
Also, Delta has reduced ABQ-MSP (a longstanding Northwest Airlines route) to seasonal service.
My wife and I were sending family off two weeks ago and we commented that it seems every time we go to the airport, it's dead. This is including the times we've flown during holidays.
The Journal regularly posts the Sunport's traffic numbers in the Business Outlook section. Even before this article I knew the airport's passenger count had been going way down. I can't remember the last time it showed a gain in passengers. What I do remember is when the airport was handling about six million or so passengers yearly. That was the peak, I believe.
I wish the Journal would've provided actual numbers rather than just percentages in the story since I'm too lazy to seek them out on my own. However, going by the number I have in my memory I guess the airport now serves about 4.8 million passengers yearly.
I'd also be interested in seeing how the Sunport is faring versus other airports across the country, especially in our peer cities. Wikipedia used to have a pretty exhaustive list of the busiest airports in the country. I remember the Sunport outperformed the airports in cities within our size range such as Tucson, El Paso, Tulsa, Wichita and Omaha.
Wikipedia still has a listing that manages to include Albuquerque, but only for initial boardings rather than total passenger count. The listing for total passenger count now gets cut off after the top thirty, when it used to be similar in scope to the one now shown for initial boardings. It has numbers for 2011...
Edit: Ha! That's what I get for talking before I've read the entire article. I only read the front page portion of the article in today's Journal (with the percentages in a box next to the picture) and now I've read the rest of the article online at the link provided. I see they did indeed provide actual numbers. Please excuse what I previously wrote about the Journal's in-depthness, if you will, haha.
Government travel restrictions have to be playing a major role in current numbers at the sunport. I work as a GS on base and used to travel constantly, these days you need a signed authorization from god himself before you can travel TDY anywhere.
I just looked at a graph of the change in disposable income (I do not have a reference) over the last couple of decades. The amount has dropped nearly 10% since 2010. This may have reduced the amount of vacation and optional air travel. Our local airport (MHT) has reported a 50% drop in travel in the last few years. We have not flown to New Mexico because our budget has been strained by increasing energy and food costs.
The cost to fly from Albuquerque has prevented me from flying as often as I would like. This last winter I thought about flying to Corpus Christi, but the flight was nearly $700.
The best way to keep the flow of traffic up and growing at the Sunport is to urge airlines to collaborate with the city in ways of making Albuquerque a connecting city or layover city such as Phoenix or Denver. If there was at least one layover airline in Albuquerque, the Sunport would have a consistant flow of people walking around the Sunport. This is a big idea. However, that's the most solid way of giving ABQ the exposure it needs.
The best way to keep the flow of traffic up and growing at the Sunport is to urge airlines to collaborate with the city in ways of making Albuquerque a connecting city or layover city such as Phoenix or Denver. If there was at least one layover airline in Albuquerque, the Sunport would have a consistant flow of people walking around the Sunport. This is a big idea. However, that's the most solid way of giving ABQ the exposure it needs.
One reason for Southwest's historically large ABQ operations is due to the Wright Amendment at Dallas Love Field, where ABQ was used as a gateway to the West Coast. However, with Southwest now serving Denver, they feel they can more economically route passengers through Denver instead of Albuquerque. The growth of Southwest's Denver operation can be to blame for many of their cuts at ABQ. It will only get worse once the Wright Amendment is lifted.
Albuquerque & New Mexico depend pretty heavily on federal tax dollars for jobs/support. It's no surprise that with all the cutbacks there's been a slowdown. My agency has already cut back significantly on travel expenses. Keep in mind the sequestration is for a decade, not just this year, so I imagine the impact will continue. Another factor is airlines raising the fares for leisure travelers as well. I used to be able to catch Southwest flights to/from BWI for $99 each way. Now I'm lucky to find a fare for $159, but more likely $179 each way. Not to mention that the nonstop travel times are inconvenient.
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Decreased travel
