Port Columbus was a significantly busier place last month, as passenger traffic soared 23 percent compared with the same month last year. Skybus and JetBlue airlines, which didn't serve the local market in July of last year, accounted for much of the change.
The surge made July the biggest month on record for the airport, with 727,953 travelers passing through it.
For the first seven months of this year, passenger totals were on a record pace, up 13.4 percent. Through the end of July, nearly 4.4 million passengers used Port Columbus. The percentage gain for the year is expected to increase, because Skybus has brought tens of thousands of new passengers through the airport since its began service on May 22.
Columbus-based Skybus has become the airport's fifth-biggest carrier by number of passengers, trailing Southwest, Delta, US Airways and American.
"They passed United, Northwest and Continental. It's pretty impressive," said Port Columbus CEO Elaine Roberts at the monthly meeting of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority at Port Columbus yesterday afternoon.
According to airport board figures, Skybus reported that its flights averaged about 79 percent full in July. Based on anecdotal evidence and booking information on Skybus' Web site, its West Coast and Florida flights have frequently been more than 90 percent full, while other routes such as Richmond, Va., and Kansas City, Mo., have not been as crowded.
Skybus spokesman Bob Tenenbaum declined to comment on individual routes, but he said the airline is happy with its overall performance.
"It's no secret that the West Coast and Florida routes have been extremely popular from the day they went on sale," Tenenbaum said. "But all of our routes are meeting or exceeding our expectations, and we're very pleased with the response from all of our markets during our first three months of operation."
Of the major airlines serving Port Columbus, market leader Southwest added the most flights, with a 9.9 percent increase year-over-year.
Skybus investors include Nationwide Mutual Capital, Huntington Capital Investment Co., Battelle Services Co. and Wolfe Enterprises Inc., a subsidiary of The Dispatch Printing Company, which publishes The Dispatch.
