Southwest takes drastic measures

The number of commercial airline passengers at Bob Hope Airport has dropped every month since April 2008, with double-digit declines recorded every month since July.

Passenger counts in April fell 10.4% from the same period last year, representing the first time in six months that the dip remained below 20%. But May figures show a drop of nearly 18.5%, according to the airport authority.

Southwest Airlines was down 17.2% in May from the same period last year, with year-to-date figures off by 17.3%, from 1.5 million passengers in 2008 to 1.25 million in 2009.

“A turnaround in the numbers is based heavily on the economy turning around,” airport Commissioner Dave Weaver said. “They go over the figures in every meeting, and all you do is sigh, take a deep breath and hope the numbers start turning around.”

McInnis said traffic on Southwest Airlines’ website spiked significantly this week, but could not predict the latest sale’s impact to Bob Hope.

“I believe we’ll see an uptick in traffic over the next few months,” Lombardo said, citing historically higher activity in July and August and fluctuating fuel prices that analysts expect to fall.

The Federal Aviation Administration in its 16-year outlook through 2025 predicted U.S. aircraft operations would decline by 5.7% from 2008 levels. Beginning in 2010, the agency expects operations to grow at an average annual rate of 1.5% for the remainder of the forecast period.