Logan traffic ends year on mixed note

January 22, 2010|Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff

More passengers flew in and out of Boston in December than they did during the same period a year ago, the sixth straight month of year-over-year traffic increases at Logan International Airport. Airport officials attribute the rising passenger volume to the four airlines that began service at Logan last year.

Logan finished 2009 below its 2008 passenger volume, with 2.3 percent fewer people flying, but the decline is less than the 7 percent drop Logan officials had predicted. Southwest, Sun Country, Virgin America, and Porter airlines all began flying out of Logan last year.

“I don’t think there are many airports in the country that can say they’ve had these kind of results,’’ said Edward Freni, director of aviation for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the airport.

Indeed, the news has not been as good elsewhere. About 3 percent fewer passengers traveled on US airlines in December compared with the same period a year before, according to the Air Transport Association, and passenger revenue fell 4 percent, the 14th consecutive month of declining year-over-year revenues. For 2009, nationwide passenger volume dropped 6 percent and revenue plunged 18 percent from 2008, the largest decline in revenue on record.

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