After Dismal ’06, PBIA Sees Passenger Numbers Increase

By Pat Beall, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.

Mar. 30–International fliers propped up Palm Beach International Airport’s passenger count in recent months, helping to offset a downtick in overall passenger numbers.

Improved passenger counts, while not dramatic, are positive indicators for an airport still feeling the impact of the Delta Air Lines bankruptcy and a significant decline in its customers.

For the three months ended Feb. 28, more than 1.95 million travelers either arrived at or departed from PBIA in suburban West Palm Beach, an extra 26,073 passengers compared with the same period a year before.

Over the long haul, the picture gets rosier, with January’s passenger traffic up 16 percent from January 2004.

Passenger traffic dipped by 2.7 percent in 2006 compared to 2005, when full planes and competing carriers helped propel PBIA traffic to a 7.3 percent increase over 2004.

But 2005 also was an especially bright year for air travel — and 2006 was an especially miserable one.

Customers griped that they were shoehorned into crowded jets.

Mishandled baggage and bumping complaints grew, according to Department of Transportation reports.

The summer’s thwarted plot to bring down U.S. airplanes using liquid explosives didn’t help.

Delta’s bankruptcy and significant restructuring also has played a significant role in the dip at PBIA.

The Atlanta-based airline ruled the local tarmac in 2005 with 102,249 embarking passengers — a 32 percent market share, according to statistics compiled by the county’s Department of Airports.

Then came the airline’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court petition in late 2005, followed by a decision to route some larger jets to lucrative international destinations.

That left smaller Delta aircraft, and fewer available seats, in airports across Florida.

By this past January, Delta’s PBIA market share had shrunk to 19.17 percent — 66,066 departing passengers.

The net loss to the airport in the 24-month period: 36,183 fewer people traversing the terminal.

PBIA officials are optimistic. “We have new carriers, we have flights to Las Vegas, and that has helped,” said Dick Haller, director of airport marketing. “Going into April this year, we have 241 nonstop flights per day.” Last April, it was 215 flights.

In addition to the nonstop service to Las Vegas launched by US Airways Group Inc. (NYSE: LCC, $45.53) last month, AirTran Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AAI, $10.20) has added two new routes since January; JetBlue Airlines Corp. (Nasdaq: JBLU, $11.59) launches nonstop service between West Palm and White Plains, N.Y., April 2.

More significantly, the number of foreign travelers is on the upswing.

Even as international tourism statewide eroded, the number of international travelers to PBIA grew by 45 percent compared with February 2006, to 19,995.

“There are markets where it is hard to lose money, and I would say Palm Beach is one of them,” said Tim Sieber, an aviation consultant with the Boyd Group in Evergreen, Colo.

It’s no international gateway, he said, but there’s a brisk market in flights to the Caribbean and South America.

Further, Delta is expressing interest in adding slightly bigger airplanes at airports.

It’s asked for bankruptcy court permission to buy as many as 60 new 76-seat regional jets. Delta’s smaller jets now offer 50 or 65 seats.

The uptick in air traffic won’t be welcomed by everyone. PBIA’s residential neighbors say they want more peace and quiet, not more jets flying over their roofs.

Extra air traffic will bolster airport arguments that extending PBIA’s shortest runway would curb delays — and nearly double the number of takeoffs and landings.

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