“Now with the summer numbers in, we can see that it is dropping more than we anticipated,” he said. “And we don’t see any improvement on the way.”
The last glimmer of optimism came in April, the first time in six months that the plunge remained below 20%, leading executives to speculate that business and leisure travel budgets were on the rebound.
Dan Feger, executive director of the Burbank-Glendale- Pasadena Airport Authority, pointed to August as rounding out a relatively flat summer, with passenger rates dropping around 16% on average.
“We’re just reflecting the trend that’s going on at every airport,” Commissioner Charles Lombardo said. “People just aren’t traveling,”
Six percent fewer passengers in August traveled on U.S. airlines compared with the same month last year, while the average cost to fly dropped 17% year-over-year, according to Air Transport Assn. of America, a U.S. airline industry group
At Ontario International Airport, passenger counts plunged to 432,118 in August compared with 565,903 the previous year, a drop of more than 26%, airport records show.
Another problem for airports across the country is that business travelers may never return to the gates at the rates they once did, said Lombardo, citing the inception of virtual meetings and other technological improvements popularized in the economic downturn.
The gloom has affected future plans for capital improvements at the airport.
Despite September parking revenue projections that weren’t as bad as expected, the authority has given Feger and his staff the OK to delay airport projects as they see fit.
