In 2014, Springfield-Branson National Airport was ahead of national trends for passenger counts, available seats and load factors, according to a State of the Airport address yesterday.
Director of Aviation Brian Weiler delivered his annual report at the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, 202 S. John Q. Hammons Parkway.
The annual passenger count at the airport was 846,324, a 12 percent increase over 2013. Nationwide, passenger counts grew 3 percent in 2014.
“There is no other airport in the entire Midwest region that has that level of increase in the last year. It’s something we’re very proud of,” Weiler said during the address of the airport that uses the shorthand code SGF.
Other commercial service airports in the region reported the following passenger increases last year: Kansas City International Airport, 3 percent; Tulsa International Airport, 4 percent; and Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, 10 percent. St. Louis Lambert recorded a passenger decrease of 1.5 percent.
SGF also increased the number of available seats by 5.3 percent in 2014, ahead of the national average of 1.8 percent, Weiler said, citing changes made in September by Delta Air Lines. The carrier swapped out a 50-seat plane for a 110-seat Boeing 717 on one of five daily flights from Springfield to Atlanta, increasing seat capacity almost 25 percent for that service alone, he said.
“What’s unusual in our market is typically they’ll do two for one. They’ll take two of the frequencies and replace it with one,” Weiler said. “We were one of the few airports that I [am] aware of that actually kept the five per day frequency.”
Load factor, which Weiler described as the average percent of occupied seats on flights, was 89 percent at the Springfield airport, over a national average of 85 percent in 2014.
“The flights are virtually full,” he said. “If you have an empty seat next to you, it’s almost like you won the lottery. It doesn’t happen very often, and that’s a good thing.”
The airport previously reported that 2014 was the fourth busiest year in its 69-year history, according to
Springfield Business Journal archives.
In January, the airport completed its annual inspection by the Federal Aviation Administration and for the 11th straight year was found to have zero discrepancies. Weiler said the airport received an excellence award from the FAA last fall.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held this morning for the airport’s recently completed expansion of general aviation facilities for business and corporate airplanes.
The $5.6 million renovation project redeveloped about 12 acres of airport property, making it ready for construction of eight new aircraft hangars, including access roads and taxiways.
Money for the project came from a $5 million aviation grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation, which is funded by taxes on aviation fuel sold in the state, and $565,562 from the airport. Weiler said the airport sells 6-7 million gallons of aviation fuel every year.
SGF is presently served by four airlines, Allegiant, American, Delta and United, flying nonstop to airports in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Orlando and Ft. Myers, Fla.
