Air Service to New Orleans Makes Slow Return

By Roger Yu

Airlines are slowly ramping up flights from New Orleans, but it will be months, if not years, before air service there returns to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels.

Only nine of the 13 airlines that flew from New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport before Katrina have resumed service or announced plans to resume flying from this once-bustling tourist city. All carriers have sharply reduced flights since Katrina pounded New Orleans on Aug. 29.

A month later, only 19 flights departed from the city on Friday, down from 164 daily before the storm. Midwest, Frontier, Air Canada, TACA International and US Airways — the new name for the merged US Airways and America West — have not resumed service. US Airways will resume Nov. 1.

The airport’s revenue has shrunk to $25,000 a day from $200,000 a day before the hurricane. Still, signs of commercial life are returning as ground transportation and concessions have begun to operate on a limited basis.

“I’m optimistic and pretty pleased, with a few footnotes,” said airport director Roy Williams in an interview. “A lot of our normal bases of customers aren’t here.”

Airport officials say many of the airline passengers now are government officials, relief workers and returning residents.

Southwest Airlines, once the airport’s largest carrier, with 57 daily departures, is operating only two flights now, both to Houston.

“It’ll be a slow buildup, because we don’t anticipate (heavy) demand,” says Ginger Hardage, a Southwest spokeswoman.

Delta Air Lines, which had operated 21 departures, has resumed five flights, one to Cincinnati and the rest to Atlanta.

American Airlines, which had 18 daily departures before Katrina, operates three flights to Dallas and plans to add service Nov. 1. United Airlines will resume service Tuesday with two departures a day. Continental, which operated 17 departures a day before Katrina, has four daily departures to Houston.

Flights are running 70% to 80% full, and airlines could add flights quickly, Williams says. The Mardi Gras festival in February could also spark more travel demand, he said.

Airport shuttles and most of the car rental companies are operating. But Williams says there are too few taxis, in part because of slow demand.

Fewer than half of the airport concessions are open. Staffing and food-quality regulations have kept more owners from resuming business, he says.

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