Traffic at Boise Airport Up 11 Percent From Last August
Posted on: Wednesday, 5 October 2005, 15:00 CDT
By Joe Estrella, The Idaho Statesman, Boise
Oct. 4--Boise Airport enjoyed its second best month of the year in August, with an 11 percent spike in total passengers, departures, arrivals and landings compared to a year ago.
After months of trying to drive down expectations, airport officials in Boise said they were now "hopeful and optimistic" that at year's end the facility will have exceeded the 3 million passenger mark for the first time since 2000.
"That's a conservative estimate," said airport marketing coordinator Larissa Stouffer.
A total of 305,313 air travelers passed through the facility in August, compared with 275,385 for the like period in 2004 and just 0.42 percent behind the previous year-long high of 306,612 set in July.
And while Boise's traffic was up 11 percent, Airline.org, which tracks monthly airline passenger traffic at airports nationwide, reported that the average month-over-month increase in traffic at major metropolitan airports was 3 percent in August.
For the first eight months of 2005, Boise Airport hosted 2,087,748 air travelers, compared with 1,890,090 a year ago.
Stouffer said the August numbers came in a month without any holiday or special events to boost passenger traffic.
"It was just a non-eventful month," she said. "We had no holidays, like July 4, and it's not like we hosted the Olympics. It's just part of the trend we're seeing every month, which reflects a strong regional economy."
She said the 11 percent jump in the number of landings in August did not necessarily explain the increase in passengers, since the higher landing figures include military, private and corporate travelers.
Marla Upham, owner of Travel Centre in Old Boise, attributed the higher number of air travelers in the Treasure Valley in August to the last of the summer vacationers, who because of higher gasoline prices are increasingly opting to fly rather than drive.
"People who are going to the Oregon Coast, or to California, are finding that they can fly there for less than if they drive," Upham said.
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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise
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