Golden Triangle Regional Airport expects its rising travel volume to stay steady despite Delta Airlines” plans to cut flights to Memphis, Tenn.,in September.
GTRA has logged 11,321 passengers boarding planes this year, compared to 10,404 this time last year.
“From the past year”s numbers, we are up 9 percent so far this year,” said Mike Hainsey, director of the GTRA.
Starting in September, GTRA will have three flights, all through Atlanta.
“What”s happening is Delta Airlines is reducing their presence in Memphis by 25 percent,” Hainsey explained.
The disadvantage is West-bound passengers will have to go through Atlanta; the advantage is Atlanta has more connections and a flight to Washington D.C. and New York every hour.
Washington and New York are two of GTRA”s top destinations for business travel, Hainsey noted.
“The business travelers like it because it gives them more options,” he added.
Delta Airlines began service from GTRA to Memphis International Airport in May 2009.
Delta will fly 32-passenger turboprop planes to Memphis twice a day, with one morning and one afternoon flight coming to GTRA from Memphis and vice versa. Delta, which already operated flights to Atlanta at the airport, said its acquisition of Northwest Airlines led it to add the flights to provide customers with additional connectivity.
Flying to Memphis provided easier access to the Western United States and international travel; it also reduced layover time.
“I”m certainly disappointed to lose Memphis as an option, but I think we have better connectivity options out of Atlanta,” said Trey Breckenridge, High Performance Computing Resources and Operations administrator for Mississippi State University.
Breckenridge flies about once a month to destinations “all over the country.”
Despite disappointment with the discontinuation of Memphis flights, Brenda Lathan, vice president for economic development with the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link, said she will continue to fly locally.
“If you”re flying West, it”s so much more convenient and saves so much more time if you can fly out of Memphis,” said Lathan, who most recently has traveled to Ohio and Chicago through GTRA. She also flies to Las Vegas at least once a year.
“I”ll continue to fly out of here simply because I don”t like to have to (drive) two or more hours,” she said.
The Link and Columbus and Lowndes County also are part of a consortium of entities and communities that have agreed to always fly through GTRA when possible.
The Link, Lowndes County and the other airport communities said they would fly through GTRA when possible.
Fuel cost was the primary driver in Delta”s decision to reduce capacity, “and Memphis is the first place to take some major hits.”
“Given what they”re doing in Memphis, we consider it a good thing that we”ll be able to maintain our connections through Atlanta,” Hainsey said.
Though GTRA officials are “constantly talking with additional carriers,” “in today”s economy, airlines are looking at reducing.”
And though GTRA competes with larger airports, such as Memphis and Birmingham, it”s becoming more feasible for passengers to spend a little extra money on a ticket at the smaller airline and save money on fuel.
“We have an agreement with Delta to keep us competitive with Birmingham,” Hainsey said. “We”re not cheaper, but when you factor in travel, it makes us competitive with Birmingham, which makes us competitive with other large airports.”
Hainsey expects the airport to continue its trend of growth, logging more than 3,000 passengers boarding planes every month.
“We”re a mirror of our local economy. If our numbers are going up, it”s because the local economy is doing well,” he said. If our numbers are going down, it”s because the economy, or because a larger airline is taking those travelers.”
The latter has not been a major problem.
“We still have people who prefer to go to the larger airports, but that number is getting smaller and smaller, especially with the price of driving,” Hainsey said.
About 80 percent of GTRA”s travelers are business travelers — the largest group of which are with MSU; March, April and May are the airport”s busiest months.
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