FALLS CREEK — The number of passengers flying to Pittsburgh or Baltimore using Southern Airways Express from the DuBois Regional Airport continues to increase.
After the first year of service in 2017, Southern Airways Express increased enplanements (outbound passenger boardings) by 24 percent over 2016, and to date in 2018, that figure is at a 54 percent increase over 2017 enplanements.
There were 160 airline landings for the month of April, 584 year-to-date against 406, airport Manager Bob Shaffer said at Friday’s airport authority meeting.
“So again, we’re flying a full schedule, not many cancellations,” Shaffer said.
“That’s a 44 percent increase year to date through April and 29 percent over April last year,” said authority Chairman Joe Varacallo.
Reviewing the summary for the passengers for the month of April, it was 379 inbound, 401 outbound, Shaffer said.
There were 162 scheduled flights outbound, three cancelled outbound flights and three inbound cancelled flights.
“So for the entire month of April, we did pretty darn good,” Shaffer said.
Interline partnership
Southern Airways Express recently announced a new interline partnership with American Airlines.
“It’s exciting to finally get to the interline announcement with Southern next week because I think that’s going to bring volumes of interest and hopefully enplanements to our airport,” Varacallo said. “We’re already seeing an increase in passengers for this year. I think we’re running on all cylinders with Southern. There’s been comments, positive comments in the public, more than I can remember in the past few years.”
“It’s going to be an interesting next couple months to see what additional improvements take place in our region,” Varacallo said.
Board member resigns
Due to job conflicts with the meeting times, board member Dave Brennan attended his last meeting Friday.
“I’m glad that Dave has been part of this board for the past two years, he’s been very valuable,” Varacallo said.