Number of Hilton Head Island Airport flights drop for fourth straight year
The number of arrivals and departures at the Hilton Head Island Airport declined for the fourth straight year in 2014, according to reports released this week.
The downhill slide is part of a larger national trend among regional airports of similar size and doesn't raise red flags for the airport's future, leaders say.
General aviation flights were down 7 percent in 2014 from 2013, according to the reports. They were down almost 19 percent from 2011 general aviation flights, the first year after Delta Air Lines suspended services and left US Airways, which merged late last year with American Airlines, as the airport's sole commercial carrier.
Myriad factors could be to blame, from high fuel prices to bad weather during the holidays and RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing. Such incidents can quickly add up to cost the airport hundreds of flights at a time, said airport director Jon Rembold and Beaufort County Airports Board member Will Dopp.
"That's also a product of not being able to get these improvement projects executed for so long," Rembold said of plans to extend the airport's runway to meet Federal Aviation Administration minimum standards.
"In the way that a good economic-development factor can take a while to really kick in, a negative one can linger and hurt you for a while. I'm confident when we turn the corner on some of these project the numbers will get better."
Extending the runway to 5,000 feet, from its current 4,300 feet, is expected to cost about $12.9 million and will include several other improvements to taxiways and flight paths, according to county plans. Federal and state grants will pay for about 95 percent of that amount.
County and airport leaders remain convinced the improvements, and previously proposed plans to expand the runway even farther to 5,400 feet, will help the county bring more commercial service to the terminal. There are no guarantees for that, though, leaders have conceded, and the projects have long been scrutinized by critical residents in neighboring gated communities.
The same day local officials discussed declining Hilton Head Island Airport flight numbers, the Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport announced it saw a 17 percent increase in passengers in 2014 compared to 2013, according to an airport news release.
Airport officials there credit the addition of JetBlue, which began service to New York City and Boston from Savannah in February, for a significant portion of that rise.
Follow reporter Zach Murdock at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach.
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This story was originally published January 16, 2015 at 2:37 PM with the headline "Number of Hilton Head Island Airport flights drop for fourth straight year."