Last month’s rainfall wasn’t the only record set in the Port City.
The economy might still be struggling, but it was the best September ever for the Wilmington International Airport – and even the record-setting monsoon couldn’t derail the momentum.
The airport saw 73,072 passengers use its terminal, which is more than even during the booming years of last decade.
The previous September high was 67,724 passengers set in 2007.
The highest one-month total this year was 81,445 in July, which is historically the airport’s busiest month.
Executive Director Jon Rosborough credits last month’s strong passenger showing to more business travelers, the airport’s bread-and-butter business, rediscovering their wings as the economy slowly rebounds.
Having Allegiant Air flying to Orlando for over a year now also has helped, along with US Airways and Delta adding bigger planes on some of their flights.
All together, Rosborough said, the airport now offers 8,000 more seats than it did in September 2009.
A new marketing campaign and competitive airfares, which might keep a few folks from driving up Interstate 40 or down U.S. 17 to the Raleigh-Durham or Myrtle Beach airports respectively, haven’t hurt either.
And the boom times might be continuing.
Rosborough said numbers for the first 11 days of October show passenger numbers up 10 percent over the same period last year.
For the year, Wilmington is just a hair behind the numbers for 2009 and 2008, although ahead of 2007’s passenger figures.
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