COLONIE — Southwest Airlines, which launched service at Albany 20 years ago after the new terminal opened at Albany International Airport, quickly became the dominant carrier. But that may be changing.

In the first nine months of this year, the low-fare carrier saw its market share here drop to 32 percent of total airport boardings from 43 percent a year earlier.

It carried 58,243 fewer passengers over the first nine months, a 13.6 percent decline at a time when airport boardings were climbing 4.5 percent.

Airport CEO John O'Donnell, during a meeting Monday morning of the Albany County Airport Authority, suggested that the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 Max after two fatal crashes in a five-month period may have played a role in the decline. Southwest operated the largest domestic fleet of 737 Max aircraft and was the only carrier at Albany to use the aircraft here regularly. Still, the Max represented just 5 percent of its daily operations.

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Although the number of daily departures has regularly fluctuated between 10 and 15, in September it fell to just eight flights, the lowest figure since the airline began service here.

And Southwest, which spent decades building a reputation as a low-fare carrier, is no longer the lowest in Albany. It now competes with what the industry calls "ultra-low fare carriers," Frontier and Allegiant. With no frills and a wide assortment of fees for any extras, the carriers can deeply discount the fares.

"I'm not surprised" by the decline in passengers at Southwest, said Jean Gagnon. who operates Plaza Travel in Latham. She said Southwest still offers competitive advance purchase "wanna get away" fares but once they're gone, its prices can be as high as those of its competitors.

And Southwest flights aren't listed on other travel sites, making it harder to compare fares.

Southwest wasn't the only carrier showing a decline. United carried 9,846 fewer passengers in the first nine months than a year earlier, while American saw 1,630 fewer passengers. But Delta carried 20,945 more passengers. JetBlue, meanwhile, was flat.

O'Donnell said Southwest also would be restoring nonstop service to Denver at some point in the future.

With 32 percent of the market, Southwest remains the largest carrier at Albany by a comfortable margin. American is a distant second with 20 percent of the market. Southwest couldn't immediately be reached Monday for comment.

Monday's airport board meeting was the last for O'Donnell, who is retiring this month. His successor, Deputy Albany County Executive Phil Calderone, attended and will assume the CEO role in time for next month's meeting.

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