Jan. 10--FLORENCE, S.C. -- Florence Regional Airport registered its fourth highest year of passenger enplanements in 2012, showing a 1 percent increase over 2011, according to officials at the airport.
The airport's highest years were 2009 and 2010 when Delta offered daily flights from Florence in addition to US Airways, now the sole commercial air service at the airport, which counted 68,907 enplanements last year.
Airport executive director Eddie Gunn said at Wednesday's Florence Regional Airport Authority (FRAA) meeting the numbers were encouraging and represented several positive factors.
"People are comfortable and enjoy coming to Florence Regional Airport because it's an easy place to get in and out of and it's reasonably priced," Gunn said. "The thing that drives people to this airport or any airport is the price of the ticket, number one, and the convenience factor, number two."
Robert Brown, FRAA's chairman, also credited business travel for higher numbers, which he notes as an economic indicator. The 386-passenger increase is the equivalent of almost eight, full, 50-passenger planes like the ones US Airways flies at the airport.
"We're primarily a business travel airport, so that's a good sign that hopefully things are picking up," Brown said.
US Airways did not return a call for comment about the increase.
Gunn also noted he has secured the $60-$65,000 in funding for a new airfield generator that needed to be replaced. About 95 percent of the funding will come from the Federal Aviation Administration this year, but to expedite the process, the South Carolina Aeronautics Commission will advance the airport the money that it will then reimburse upon receiving federal dollars. A backup generator for the terminal became operational in early December.
Both the airfield generator and terminal generators failed to restore power to the airport after a severe storm passed through the area on July 1, resulting in the cancellation of four flights. The airfield generator is expected to go online in the coming months.
Meanwhile, work on the roof of the original terminal building is expected to conclude in two weeks, coming in around $450,000.
Expect to see more helicopter traffic in the skies over Florence on Jan. 30-31. Helicopters based in Fort Campbell, Ky., will be flying exercises from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga., and will be fueling up at the airport, a rough midpoint, during that time. The airport's Fixed Base Operator (FBO)--owned by the airport authority--expects to see a good spike in fuel sales for the month.
Copyright 2013 - Florence Morning News, S.C.
