Passenger boardings at Charleston's Yeager Airport appear to be entering a modest growth period, following four years of decline.
Mike Plante, Yeager's marketing director, told members of the airport's governing board on Wednesday that commercial airline boardings have increased in four of the past six months, including a 3.6 percent upturn posted last month, following a 1.9 percent increase in January.
Between June 2012 and August 2016, monthly passenger numbers increased only twice, Plante said. Declines in boardings were posted in every month of 2014, while the sharpest drops in passenger numbers occurred in 2013, when boardings dropped 15.2 percent in January, 11.5 percent in February, 9.9 percent in March and 9.7 percent in May.
The downturn began in June 2012, when AirTran dropped its popular Charleston-Orlando service in June when it merged with Southwest. In 2014, severe winter weather and the Freedom Industries' chemical spill discouraged travel to the Charleston area and temporarily left the airport without a water supply.
Plante said a marketing partnership with Charleston-based National Travel, in which special fares and destination amenities are discussed in television news spots and featured in newspaper ads has helped bring about the upward trend in passenger boardings.
While Yeager officials work to restore nonstop service between Charleston and New York, a low-cost alternative to reaching that destination will be available when Spirit Airlines, Yeager's seasonal low-cost carrier, resumes service at the Charleston airport on April 29. Due to Spirit's limited schedule, the most convenient Charleston-Myrtle Beach-New York round trip flights, available for as low as $197.57, depart Charleston at 11:12 a.m., arrive at Myrtle Beach at 12:23 p.m., depart Myrtle Beach at 2:09 p.m. and arrive in New York at 3:59 p.m.
The return flight, which involves an overnight stop in Myrtle Beach, departs New York on Fridays at 6:30 p.m., arrives at the South Carolina coastal city at 8:24 p.m., and departs for Charleston on Saturdays at 9:20 a.m., arriving at Yeager at 10:32 a.m.
"It would work a lot better for the leisure traveler than the business traveler," Haden said, but it would give travelers the chance to spend two days in New York with an air fare of less than $200.
Spirit's ticket counter at Yeager opens for the season on April 10.
In other developments, finance committee chairman Trip Shumate announced that the Charleston Airport's net operating income at this point in the fiscal year is $322,623 - $90,618 above what it was during the same period in the 2016 fiscal year.
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