April 29--WEST BAY -- Passenger traffic at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP) hasn't managed to grow over the previous year for seven consecutive months.
ECP officials once again reported a decline for the month of March at a board meeting Wednesday, with total passengers posting a slight drop of a little more than 1 percent.
However, new Executive Director Parker McClellan said the declines are part of an evening out phase for the airport, as major air carriers Southwest and Delta learn and adjust to the area's seasonal market.
"The numbers that you see have a lot to do with the refinement of the Southwest schedule, and both Delta and Southwest making adjustments," McClellan said.
This time last year, Southwest was running eight daily flights to four destinations and added a "test flight" to St. Louis from June to August.
The airline has since adjusted its "busy season" schedule and is now running seven daily flights: two to Nashville, three to Houston, and one each to Baltimore and St. Louis.
Although Southwest is only down one flight since last year, the airline has been tweaking its schedule since November, when it dropped one flight each to Baltimore and Orlando in November, and later canceled service to Orlando completely in January.
During the winter months, Southwest was running only five daily flights, but bumped up to seven in March by bringing back a St. Louis flight in March and adding a third daily flight to Houston.
McClellan said this year will most likely set a new benchmark for ECP after the 2012 "bumper crop" year.
"The 12 months from when Southwest adjusted their schedule, that will kind of be our benchmark from that point on," McClellan said. "They fine-tuned, they learned the market. Delta has learned the market and they're bringing in more of the Delta main line jets, bigger jets, so that there's more capacity."
ECP has seen declines in passenger traffic since September, though decreases in September and October were slight, at 1 and 3 percent.
A bigger shock came in November, when the airport saw an 11 percent decline in traffic, with Southwest seeing a large 17 percent drop.
Although Southwest canceled two daily flights in November, former executive director John Wheat reported the number was still surprising to ECP and Southwest officials.
Southwest posted another 17 percent decline in December passengers, contributing to a total traffic decline of 13 percent for the airport from December 2011.
January and February also showed double-digit declines in passengers, each month at about 15 percent, stemming from a reduction of three of Southwest's daily flights.
"The passengers (in March) are still down over last year, but they're not down as much," McClellan said. "That's our seasonal growth with Spring Break popping in."
ECP is looking at a passenger decline of about 9 percent so far this year.
Board member Dawn Moliterno, the former director of the South Walton Tourist Development Council (TDC), said the region may also be "evening out" after spending a $30 million tourism marketing grant from BP.
"You had $30 million in advertising that is no longer in the market," Moliterno said. "As you see bed tax start to even out, that's going to be reflected in these numbers too."
Dan Rowe, director of the Bay County TDC, said he doesn't think the lack of dollars should lead to declines because the money was largely spent in 2011, and the TDC sill saw a 12 percent growth in bed tax in 2012.
"I think we're going to continue to see growth, but it may get back to the normal growth patterns," said Rowe, noting "normal" growth would be between 2 and 6 percent. "The areas where we are now are the new normal because we showed growth after those marketing dollars were expended."
The Bay and Walton TDCs both contribute to a marketing co-op with Southwest for advertising in the markets the airline is flying from. The Bay County TDC has also set aside additional dollars this year to market Panama City Beach in those areas outside of the co-op.
"With the Orlando flight, we were sad to see that go away, but we're thrilled Southwest has added seasonal service to St. Louis because that's an important Midwest market for us," Rowe said. "The amount that we're spending in those markets has not diminished at all, it's just who is making those ad decisions."
Copyright 2013 - The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.
