All Things Travel: Logan Airport Lines Up Record Passenger Numbers
BOSTON (CBS) – Logan Airport passenger numbers should be up about 250,000 for this month.
Last year the numbers showed the airport doing almost 3.5 million passengers, with 11 new international carriers starting service this year. That number should climb by over 250,000 which averages out to be 8,000 a day.
Figures released last week for the first half of this year showed the total passenger count up 9.2 percent and international numbers up 20 percent against the same period last year.
For the last couple of years, Massport has been saying that the number of flights taking off and landing has remained about the same due to the use of larger aircraft to handle the increased loads.
In the first half of this year, airport take offs and landings totaled 187,189 which is an increase of 7.9 percent over the same period in 2015.
The total passenger count for six months at the Boston airport were 17,159,282. The international numbers totaled just over three million for the first time.
All of this has not come without problems.
On last Friday afternoon as my family waited to greet international visitors, wait times in the Customs Hall were more than 90 minutes. for incoming passengers.
At the Avis rent-a-car area, there were almost 50 people in line waiting to pick-up cars.
All of this growth is not without its problems and has probably peaked for the near future.
Low fuel prices, the low cost of borrowing money and the strong dollar have airlines adding capacity and starting new routes.
Terrorism in France and Germany and a coup attempt in Turkey have foreign and U.S. carriers reviewing routes and load factors for the fall.
Also, JetBlue is appealing the decision not to award a Boston-Cuba weekly flight later this year.
Massport, the operator of the airport and cruise terminal, remains optimistic.
"The increase in passengers speaks to the strong economy that is buttressed by higher education, financial services, biotechnology, medicine and tourism," said Tom Glynn, CEO of the Port Authority.
Bob Weiss reports on business travel on Mondays at 5:55 a.m. on WBZ NewsRadio 1030.
