Airport Business Soars Because of Jazz Fest in N.O.

By Anonymous

The second weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival produced the second-busiest day at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport since Hurricane Katrina, according to figures LANOIA released today.

Jazz Fest has always created a surge in Armstrong’s traffic, and this year was no exception, LANOIA officials said.

The number of passengers processed through security during Jazz Fest placed four of the festival’s days in the top 10 departure days since Katrina, LANOIA said.

To meet the expected demand, JetBlue Airways and Continental Airlines increased their numbers of flights and overall seats. Continental added the most seats through a combination of extra flights and larger aircraft, which amounted to more than 5,700 additional seats.

“The strong passenger numbers this year reflect the resurgence of major events and leisure travel in this market,” said Sean Hunter, LANOIA’s aviation director. “It is very encouraging to see such significant growth since 2006. We want to acknowledge the tremendous role of the airlines in the success of these major events. Every extra seat they added brought one more visitor to our region, and every visitor had an impact on our economic recovery.”

The top 10 departure days at LANOIA since Katrina:

– Jan. 8, BCS game, 19,188 passengers

– May 5, Jazz Fest second weekend, 17,937

– Jan. 2, Sugar Bowl, 17,292

– May 4, Jazz Fest second weekend, 16,868

– Feb. 18, NBA All-Star game, 16,750

– April 28, Jazz Fest first weekend, 16,584

– March 20, spring break, 16,371

– May 6, Jazz Fest second weekend, 16,284

– March 19, spring break, 16,100

– Feb. 1, the Friday before Mardi Gras, 15,973

For this year’s Jazz Fest, some hoteliers mentioned customer gripes about a lack of flights into the city. But LANOIA spokeswoman Michelle Wilcut said the airport did not receive any specific complaints.

Flights into the city the night before the event and out the morning after will be harder to come by, Wilcut said.

“It is the same situation as with large convention groups,” she said. “If you can spread the time that you spend in the city by a day or so, it helps with (availability). This was even the case before Katrina when we had 20,000 daily seats into the city. Currently we’re at 16,000 so there is a larger gap to fill.”

Currently, LANOIA has service to 38 destinations on 138 daily flight departures with approximately 16,000 seats.

Credit: CityBusiness Staff

(Copyright 2008 Dolan Media Newswires)

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