RFD increases slightly on passenger ranking list

August 5th, 2009 at 01:33pm Thomas V. Bona

Late last month, the FAA released its preliminary 2008 passenger rankings for U.S. airports. Chicago Rockford International Airport rose in the rankings for the sixth straight year, despite a slight drop in traffic. That’s because others fell worse than RFD did, thanks to high fuel prices and the start of the recession. The airport is now 213th in the nation, up from 215th at the end of 2007.

2008 was not a great year for airports (and 2009 is even worse, though we won’t know how worse til next summer).  Of the 212 airports ahead of RFD, 157 of them had bigger declines. Only 47 airports bigger than RFD increased in 2008. Here are the biggest winners and losers:

Up

1. Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz. +381.87 percent
2. Boulder City, Nev. +146.26 percent
3. Grand Junction, Colo. +24.73 percent
4. Aquadillla, PR +22.58 percent
5. Bellingham, Wash. +16.27 percent
6. Fayetteville, NC +15.49 percent
7. Rapid City, SD +14.92 percent
8. Augusta, Ga. +13.85 percent
9. Bullhead City, Ariz. +12.90 percent
10. Jackson Hole, Wyo. +9.74 percent

Down

1. Nantucket, Mass. -48.62 percent
2. Toledo, Ohio -26.65 percent
3. Oakland, Calif. -22.14 percent
4. Hilo, Hawaii 19.33 percent
5. Juneau, Alaska -18.03 percent
6. Idaho Falls, Idaho -17.46 percent
7. Daytona Beach, Fla. -16.9 percent
8. San Luis, Calif. -16.52 percent
9. Cincinnati, Ohio -16.04 percent
10. Newburgh, NY -15.96 percent

I find it interesting that five of the top 10 growers are Allegiant Air airports (though I can’t confirm they all had Allegiant service in 2008, I just know they have it now). That makes sense as Allegiant targets smaller cities that don’t have other air service, and can thus make a big impact. I’ll follow up on some interesting Allegiant numbers later.

The decliners are all over the map - leisure destinations, business destinations (Well, Cincy at least), alternative airports with tough competition  … and poor Oakland.

Finally, here are the Illinois rankings.Passenger numbers are in enplanements, which are only boarding numbers, so it’s half of what we typically report:

1. Chicago O’Hare        33,668,545    -7.81 percent
2. Chicago Midway        8,019,338    -12.19 percent
3. Quad City    476,533        -1.05 percent
4. Peoria        278,426        +2.60 percent
5. Bloomington    262,840        -0.05 percent
6. Rockford    110,153        -0.62 percent
7. Champaign    98,243        -12.63 percent
8. Springfield    56,786        -8.61 percent
9. MidAmerica    26,958        -7.07 percent
10. Williamson County 3,607        -44 percent

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