Traffic up as Metro Airport rebounds 'nicely'

Oct. 4, 2010
Several airlines launching new service from Detroit

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Oct. 04--Michigan's economic chill notwithstanding, Metro Airport is heating up.

Consider:

--Passenger traffic rose four months in a row, after 22 months of decline.

--This month is projected to be the best October for average daily departures since 2006.

--Occupancy at the airport's Westin Hotel is above pre-recession levels.

--Several airlines are launching new service from Metro.

"The airport is rebounding nicely," said Terry Teifer, interim senior vice president of the Wayne County Airport Authority, which operates Metro and Willow Run airports.

"I think of it as a positive sign," said Dana Johnson, chief economist at Comerica Bank. "It's a sign that companies are starting to ease up on their restrictions and they're traveling around the country doing business again in the traditional ways."

Air travel is on the rebound

Software trainer Kristen Scraggs often gets upgraded to a first-class seat because she flies so often for her job.

Scraggs of Adrian said her weekly flights are so crowded, even first class is often booked.

Scraggs flies every week for her job as a software trainer, so she often gets upgraded.

"It seems like every flight is full now, where before it wasn't," she said last week as she waited to collect her luggage after a flight home from Indianapolis.

Metro Airport has logged passenger traffic increases for four months in a row after 22 months of decline, and officials say they see signs of a travel rebound.

In August, the most recent month for which statistics are available, passenger traffic rose 9.6%, to more than 3.1 million, according to passenger counts compiled by the Wayne County Airport Authority. That increase follows increases in May, June and July.

International travelers through Metro are leading the growth. They were up 14.4% in August compared with the same month a year ago.

Flight schedules for October project daily average departures from Metro to rise to 649, from 584 in last October of last year, an 11.1% increase. Metro hasn't averaged that many daily departures in October since 2006, spokesman Michael Conway said.

The increased traffic even shows up in parking revenue, said Terry Teifer, interim senior vice president of the Wayne County Airport Authority. Parking revenue has risen steadily since June, when the authority lowered the daily rate at the Blue Deck from $16 to $10, to win back customers, he said.

Business also is up at the airport-owned Westin Hotel, where occupancy is running around 80% this year, compared with 60% last year. Like the parking lots, the hotel has cut rates to lure travelers.

Teifer said officials have worked hard to market the hotel as a business meeting spot, where participants can fly in from around the country, hold their meeting and fly home without leaving the property. The NFL Owners Association is among such groups to meet there, he said.

Business travel seems to be rebounding as well, said Cathy Lee, 45, of East Lansing. She said she is traveling more for her job as a sales manager for a chemical company.

"Last year, we were doing cost reductions and everything had to be approved," Lee said. "Now, we're sort of back to our own judgment."

The activity at Metro is part of a worldwide rebound in air travel, which plunged in 2009 as the recession hurt business and leisure travel, as well as cargo shipping. In 2009, Americans took 50 million fewer domestic flights than in 2008, a 7% drop, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. But those numbers are beginning to change, said Steve Lott, of the International Air Transport Association, a global industry trade group.

"The rebound has been stronger and faster than we had predicted even a few months ago," Lott said. "People are flying, and passenger traffic has returned to pre-recession levels, plus a little bit more."

The Asian market has been the biggest growth area for air travel. Metro's largest carrier, Delta, recently added service to Seoul, Hong Kong and Honolulu. That is good news for people who work in and around Metro Airport and for the airlines. Lott's group estimates the global airline industry will book almost $9 billion in profits this year.

Spirit Airlines is adding flights to Los Angeles, New York, West Palm Beach, Fla., Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J. Frontier Airlines recently added a Denver flight.

Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines will add flights to Chicago, Phoenix and Baltimore in March; Jet Blue has added flights out of Metro.

Contact JOHN WISELY: 313-222-6825 or