Mar. 11--Airline passenger traffic continues to rebound from a four-year slump at Tulsa International Airport, increasing 4.5 percent in February to 218,018 passengers compared with February 2005, airport executives said.
"In the last 12 months, we've been up 4 percent to 6 percent each month," said Airports Director Jeff Mulder. "It's been going up consistently at a nice pace.
"When you add the new cities -- Orlando and San Antonio -- it certainly helps increase our numbers because it gives passengers additional destinations."
For the first two months of the year, 445,924 passengers flew into or from Tulsa International, up 5 percent from January and February 2005.
When Atlantic Southeast Airlines began offering service to Orlando, Fla., in November and United Express and Trans States Airlines started flying to San Antonio on March 3, they became the 16th and 17th cities to receive daily nonstop service from Tulsa.
The others cities with daily nonstop service from Tulsa are: Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Memphis, Minneapolis, Newark, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and St. Louis.
Eleven commercial airlines and several charter carriers provide passenger service at Tulsa International, and commercial aircraft activity has increased during the first two months of this year compared with the same period a year ago, officials said.
Air carrier operations totaled 2,674 in February, a 17.2 percent increase from February 2005. An operation is a landing or a takeoff.
For the first two months, air carrier operations totaled 5,533, a 17.9 percent increase.
The biggest decrease in aircraft activity was reported by the military, chiefly the 138th Fighter Wing of the Oklahoma Air National Guard. Military units had 1,765 operations in February, down 60.4 percent from the same month last year.
For the first two months, the military had 4,110 operations, a 52.5 percent decrease from January and February last year.
Parking revenue at airport lots totaled $489,026 in February, a 33.6 percent increase from February 2005. For the first two months, parking revenue was just over $1 million, a 29.3 percent increase from the same two months last year.
Parking activity, however, declined 1.9 percent in February, to 50,631 vehicles compared with February 2005. For the first two months, parking activity totaled 107,117 vehicles, down 1.1 percent.
Mulder said the disparity between rising parking revenue and declining activity reflects recent parking rate increases.
In November, short-term parking rates increased from $6.95 a day to $8.95 a day. On March 1, shuttle lot rates increased from $4.95 a day to $5.95 a day.
Trustee Carl Clay, at an airport board meeting Thursday, said trustees should consider raising shuttle lot rates more.
Mulder said the decrease in parking activity should be watched closely.
"We have seen a decrease in usage, we assume, because of higher rates," he said. "We want to watch this from a market share standpoint: We don't want to lose our customers.
"It's always a balance between trying to maximize revenue and keeping our market share."
Two off-airport parking competitors, Fine Airport Parking and Airport All Covered Parking, are based within a mile of the passenger terminal.
Carl Remus, deputy airport director of finance and administration, said a parking rate increase must be considered carefully.
"If we raised rates much more than we're at now, we will be losing even more activity -- customers -- and not gaining that much more in revenue," Remus said.
"Our (passenger) enplanements are up 5 percent. A rising tide should raise all boats, and all things being equal, we should see a 5 percent rise in parking activity. But we're not seeing it.
D.R. Stewart 581-8451
