Travel out of the Westchester County Airport was expected to be down slightly this holiday season compared to a year ago, falling in line with the trend set during the first 11 months of 2011.
Airport Manager Peter Scherrer said that based on a preliminary survey of flight statistics, there were about 200 fewer passengers departing from Westchester per day during the holiday season.
The decline can probably be attributed to JetBlue using a slightly smaller aircraft than in previous years for many of its flights out of Westchester, Scherrer said, adding that holiday travel numbers were otherwise unchanged from the 2010-2011 season.
“We”™re going to be a bit lighter than normal ”“ overall we”™re probably down 200 passengers per day, on average, as compared to last year,” he said last week.
The figures should come as little surprise, following a year that saw minor drops in the number of commercial flights and in the number of passengers arriving at and departing from the airport.
From January through November of last year, there were 31,694 total commercial flights into and out of Westchester County Airport, compared to 32,753 total operations over the first 11 months of 2010.
During the same time span 879,813 passengers departed on commercial flights, representing a 3.7 percent decrease.
In 2012, “our numbers will be a little less than in previous years,” Scherrer said, adding, “We”™ll probably be hitting 900,000 (departing passengers) as we finish up 2011 and we”™ll be about the same in 2012.”
”˜The pendulum has swung”™
Despite the recent decreases in flights and passengers, Scherrer and Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said the mood has definitely shifted surrounding the airport”™s local impact.
Over the past 10 years, there have been significant increases in the number of arrivals and departures, and increasing numbers of travelers are often asking Scherrer whether the terminal is due for an expansion.
“We have a tiny terminal and it works for us but again we could use a little bit of room just to make it more comfortable for everybody,” he said.
While more flights are not in the airport”™s future due to restrictions on commercial air traffic, Scherrer said the expansion of several airlines”™ flight offerings to destinations in Florida and more recently, to the Bahamas, have helped to boost leisure travelers as well as the airport”™s overall reputation.
“It”™s almost like the pendulum has swung. People like an airport that”™s convenient.”
Astorino told the Business Journal his administration has already had internal conversations about possibly reconfiguring the airport”™s layout in 2012 to accommodate the consistent stream of passengers.
He said the airport will not become “the LaGuardia of the North,” but added that “a reconfiguration with a potential bump-out is a possibility.”
“I think the lack of space is something we have to and will address in 2012. We”™ve already been looking at it internally,” Astorino said.
