LYH Bucks Trends with Third Busiest July on Record; Passenger Boardings Up 160 percent

LYNCHBURG, August 13, 2009 „Ÿ Lynchburg Regional Airport continued to experience unprecedented gains in airline passenger traffic in July, with passenger boardings more than two and one-half times higher than the same month last year.

In all, the airport handled some 16,595 inbound and outbound passengers last month, the most passengers served for a July since 1994, and the third busiest July on record. Airport wide load factor for the month, or percentage of seats filled, continued strong as well at 79 percent.

 gIt fs really all about competitive airfares, h said airport director Mark Courtney.  gWhen you fre losing 60 to 65 percent of your potential passenger base because your lowest fares are $200 or more than near-by airports, being in a position to offer a more competitive fare structure goes a long way to help recapture a significant portion of that lost business. h

Contributing to the near tripling of passengers at Lynchburg Regional Airport was more seat capacity that was added earlier this year by Delta and US Airways in response to the greater demand by local air travelers for Lynchburg fs low fares. An aggressive and continuing multi-media advertising campaign also helped to raise awareness in the community which, along with Lynchburg Regional Airport fs central location, uncongested terminal and convenient parking, further contributed to the positive passenger response.

Year-to-date, Lynchburg Regional Airport passenger traffic is now up 84 percent, with the airport serving a total of 97,004 passengers since January. By comparison, that fs more passengers than the airport recorded in 2003 for the entire year.

Lynchburg Regional Airport offers a total of eight daily departures most days of the week on two airlines. US Airways provides five daily departures on 37-seat and 50-seat Dash-8 aircraft to Charlotte, and Delta Connection continues its all-jet service to Atlanta with three daily departures on 50-seat regional jets.