T.F. Green passenger traffic down 6.5% in ’08

WARWICK – The R.I. Airport Corporation reported that passenger traffic at T.F. Green Airport was down 6.5 percent, or 4.6 million passengers, in 2008.
Punctuated by a year-over-year December drop of 4.3 percent, the airport’s 2008 figures were “consistent with an industry decline in both businesses and leisure travel nationwide,” the RIAC said in a statement last week.
“The airline industry is experiencing the effects of a struggling economy coupled with the high cost of jet fuel,” said Kevin Dillon, Airport Corporation president and CEO. “While other airports across the country have seen double-digit losses, we feel somewhat fortunate to have experienced a less-severe drop in activity.”
Southwest Airlines, the airport’s largest carrier, was down 1.59 percent for the year. T.F. Green’s second-largest carrier, U.S. Airways, was down 1.3 percent in 2008. Continental Airlines’ passenger numbers increased in 2008, up 3.48 percent for the year.
T.F. Green also lost service from carrier American Eagle in 2008. &#8226