Springfield airport passenger numbers hold steady in April

Springfield-Branson National Airport is touting the fact that its passenger numbers in April were unchanged from a year ago.

The airport logged 61,413 total passengers in April, virtually unchanged from April 2008. It marks the first month without a significant decrease in year-over-year passenger numbers since January 2008.

In his airport blog, Public Information and Marketing Director Kent Boyd said posting flat numbers is not typically something to be excited about - but during a recession, it is.

Boyd said he's not convinced that the slide in passenger numbers is over. He said overall signals from the whole market are mixed; nationally, enplanements are down 11 percent, and airline capacity is down 7 percent.

Even in Springfield, Boyd noted, four of the five airlines serving the airport saw declining passenger numbers. Only Allegiant Air posted a gain - 40 percent for the month.

"It's likely the main line carrier numbers would have declined even further if they hadn't been offering fire sales," Boyd said in his blog. "So, bottom line, our passenger numbers are improving ... but Allegiant seems to deserve most of the credit."