Passenger Growth Still Lags Averages at D/FW

Aug. 5, 2005
For the seventh consecutive month, passenger growth at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport lagged industry averages in June, although there are signs of recovery.

For the seventh consecutive month, passenger growth at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport lagged industry averages in June, although there are signs of recovery.

The airport had 5,445,430 passengers in June, up 0.9 percent from last year. As a whole, the industry had 2.4 percent more passengers in June compared with the same month last year.

It was the airport's best performance since Delta Air Lines announced the pull-down of its hub late last year.

"We're starting to edge back up," Joe Lopano, executive vice president of marketing and revenue management, told D/FW board members Thursday.

More flights by American Airlines, and particularly American Eagle, accounted for much of the increase, Lopano said. AMR now carries 83.5 percent of D/FW's passengers.

Preliminary July figures look flat compared with last year, he said.

In other news:

Mexicana Airlines will begin daily nonstop service to Guadalajara, Mexico, on Aug. 17.

A Department of Public Safety "go team" was sent to the crash of Air France Flight 358 at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Tuesday to observe emergency-response procedures.

Performance at the Federal Aviation Administration's Terminal Radar Approach Control at D/FW has improved significantly since managerial changes were made after a whistle-blower complaint in 2004. D/FW has recorded nine operational errors so far this year, compared with 43 in 2004. This year, Atlanta has recorded one error, Chicago has nine, Houston has six, New York has 207, Washington/Baltimore has 22 and Southern California has 12.

D/FW has won the Star of Energy Efficiency Award for upgrades to the airport energy plaza, for the conversion of its vehicle fleet to alternative fuels, and for retrofits of Terminal B and the rental-car center.