Apr. 27—Passenger departures at the local airport increased by two-thirds in March from the month before, the first significant sign air travel here is returning to normal.
The number of people flying out of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport increased to 11,637 last month, up 2.2% from March 2020, the month the COVID-19 pandemic began seriously reducing air travel.
The news was even better compared to February, when only 6,987 people boarded departing flights.
"It's telling us that we're moving in the right direction," airport Director Carl Beardsley Jr. said Monday. "And speaking with the airlines, they're seeing the same trends with the airport. And that means that hopefully, near term, they're going to consider putting new service in."
The airport lost service from Delta Air Lines last year and individual flights from other airlines because of the pandemic.
Beardsley said business travelers have begun returning. During an airport board meeting Thursday, he cited more travel from employees of Tobyhanna Army Depot in Monroe County and Procter & Gamble in Wyoming County.
"Still, the majority of our flyers right now and the majority of flyers across the country are leisure oriented," he said. "But speaking to some of the businesses, they're telling me that slowly they're starting to get back into traveling, which is great news for us."
During the board meeting, Chairman Tim McGinley pointed out the March numbers are better than they look because the previous March included about 2,500 Delta departures.
"United and American, their performance has really improved drastically, I believe," McGinley said.
In other business during the board meeting last week, a Canastota, New York, company won the first major construction contract for the local airport's latest taxiway extension with a much lower bid than other bidders.
JBS Dirt Inc. submitted a $4,600,765 bid to build a new access road to the airport's control tower and do the preparatory work necessary for an eventual 1,200-foot southern taxiway extension. The bid was more than $1.4 million less than the next lowest bid. JBS outbid four others, all local.
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