T.F. Green passenger traffic drops for fourth consecutive month

PASSENGER TRAFFIC at T.F. Green Airport dropped 7.6 percent year over year for the month of April and 6.4 percent for the first four months of 2014. However, cargo transportation volume remained largely unchanged. / COURTESY R.I. AIRPORT CORPORATION
PASSENGER TRAFFIC at T.F. Green Airport dropped 7.6 percent year over year for the month of April and 6.4 percent for the first four months of 2014. However, cargo transportation volume remained largely unchanged. / COURTESY R.I. AIRPORT CORPORATION

(Updated, 2:17 p.m.)

WARWICK – Passenger traffic at T.F. Green Airport declined in April for a fourth consecutive month, dropping 7.6 percent to 305,453 total passengers from 330,423 passengers in April 2013, according to numbers released Tuesday by the R.I. Airport Corporation.

Year-to-date passenger figures also showed a decline, falling 6.4 percent to 1.09 million passengers through April compared with 1.17 million passengers during the same four-month period last year.

The decline in passengers for April represented the largest year-over-year drop for a single month so far this year.

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“What we are seeing now is the airlines’ overall strategy to be conservative with regard to capacity,” said R.I. Airport Corporation President and CEO Kelly Fredericks in a statement. “Combining this with an unprecedented amount of winter/spring weather-related cancellations, as well as some operating restrictions at other airports due to construction, has caused recent reductions in passenger traffic at T.F. Green Airport.”

Fredericks said he remains optimistic in the airport’s ability to increase future passenger traffic, and that the R.I. Airport Corporation has continued its “aggressive air-service development efforts” with incumbent airlines as well as airlines not currently serving T.F. Green.

Despite the decline in passenger traffic, T.F. Green’s total cargo enplaned and deplaned for the month of April remained relatively the same as the same month last year. In April, the airport transported roughly 2.036 million pounds of cargo, a decline of one-tenth of a percent compared with 2.039 million pounds in April 2013. Year-to-date cargo tonnage increased 1.72 percent in the first four months of 2014 compared with the year prior.

The five airlines with the greatest share of T.F. Green’s passenger traffic in April were Southwest Airlines, at 47.1 percent; US Airways, at 25.6 percent; Delta Airlines, at 12.5 percent; JetBlue Airways, at 7.4 percent; and United Airlines, at 7.3 percent.

Among them, US Airways was the only major airline to register a year-over-year increase in passengers in April. US Airways and its affiliate carriers transported a total 78,057 passengers last month, an increase of 6.3 percent over the April 2013 total of 73,455.

Of the remaining four major airlines, United saw the most dramatic decline in passenger traffic, dropping 29.5 percent to 22,350 total passengers from 31,692 passengers the previous year. Southwest declined 10.4 percent, while Delta fell 6.7 percent and JetBlue fell 3.6 percent.

Since January, 17,220 aircraft have departed from or landed at T.F. Green Airport.

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