ROMULUS, Mich. --
A combination of factors led to a decline in passenger traffic at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in the calendar year 2009.
Passenger traffic declined 10.8 percent compared to 2008.
A total of 31,357,388 passengers arrived or departed from the airport last year. That is nearly 3.8 million fewer than 2008.
Lester Robinson is the CEO for the airport authority.
"Airports worldwide have been faced with significant airline capacity reductions in response to dramatic changes in the economy over the past year, " Robinson said. "As the economy recovers in the coming years, we are confident that the air traffic at Detroit Metropolitan Airport will rebound."
Aircraft landings and take-offs declined 6.5 percent in 2009.
Total air cargo dropped 23.2 percent for the year but did experience a surge of more than 10 percent in December.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2010, Delta is adding non-stop flights to its schedule to cities like Shanghai, Rome, Seoul, Hong Kong and Honolulu.
Other carriers, including AirTran Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and Frontier Airlines also plan to add new, daily service this year.
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