T.F. Green passenger traffic drops 7.8% from May 2013

PASSENGER TRAFFIC at T.F. Green Airport fell 7.8 percent in May compared with the same month the year before, the fifth consecutive month of declining passenger numbers at the airport. / COURTESY R.I. AIRPORT CORPORATION
PASSENGER TRAFFIC at T.F. Green Airport fell 7.8 percent in May compared with the same month the year before, the fifth consecutive month of declining passenger numbers at the airport. / COURTESY R.I. AIRPORT CORPORATION

WARWICK – Passenger traffic at T.F. Green Airport declined 7.8 percent in May, the largest year-over-year drop for a single month so far this year, according to numbers released Friday by the R.I. Airport Corporation.

Total passengers dropped to 314,005 in May from 340,639 the previous year. Year-to-date passenger figures also showed a decline, falling 6.7 percent to 1.4 million passengers through May compared with 1.5 million passengers during the same five-month period last year.

R.I. Airport Corporation President and CEO Kelly Fredericks has said previously that the continued decline in passenger traffic at the airport this year is partly the result of airlines’ increasingly conservative strategies, and that T.F. Green has continued its “aggressive air-service development efforts” with incumbent airlines and those not currently serving Rhode Island’s airport.

Despite the decline in passenger traffic, T.F. Green’s total cargo enplaned and deplaned for the month of May rose slightly compared with the same month last year. In May, the airport transported roughly 2.3 million pounds of cargo, an increase of 8.4 percent over the 2.1 million pounds transported in May 2013. Year-to-date cargo tonnage increased 3.12 percent in the first five months of 2014 compared with the year prior.

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The five airlines with the greatest share of T.F. Green’s passenger traffic in April were Southwest Airlines, at 46.5 percent; US Airways, at 25.8 percent; Delta Airlines, at 12.6 percent; United Airlines, at 7.7 percent; and JetBlue Airways, at 7.3 percent.

Among them, US Airways was the only major airline to register a year-over-year increase in passengers in May. US Airways and its affiliate carriers transported a total 81,051 passengers last month, an increase of 3 percent over the May 2013 total of 78,724.

Of the remaining four major airlines, United saw the most dramatic decline in passenger traffic, dropping 30.2 percent to 24,117 total passengers from 341,575 passengers the previous year. Delta fell 8.9 percent, while Southwest declined 8.5 percent and JetBlue fell 4.6 percent.

Since January, 22,600 aircraft have departed from or landed at T.F. Green Airport.

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