Commercial passengers dropped 42 percent at Hilton Head Island Airport last year
The total number of commercial passengers flying in and out of Hilton Head Island Airport declined more than 42 percent last year, according to new statistics released this week.
Although the airport's passengers have declined steadily since the economic downturn, the steep slide in 2015 is the biggest single-year drop in more than a decade.
The decrease is due to new limits last year on the number of flights available to and from Hilton Head as its sole carrier, U.S. Airways, merged with American Airlines, said airports director Jon Rembold.
"With the merger and changes in their fleet, there's just fewer aircraft available for these areas," Rembold said. "Unfortunately, that's the best I have."
Over the busy summer tourist season in years past, U.S. Airways would increase to about a half-dozen daily flights to and from the airport, regularly serving more than 11,000 passengers each month, Rembold and the data show.
As effects of the merger crept across U.S. Airways' flight schedules last year, however, planes were redirected to other routes and Hilton Head Island secured only four or five daily flights throughout the summer, he said.
American Airlines also dumped the island's popular weekly route to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., because the company didn't continue U.S. Airways' gate agreement there, Rembold said.
In combination with bad weather and less-than-ideal flight paths into the airport, "it's murdered our numbers," said Rich Sells, chairman of the Beaufort County Airports Board.
The 78,486 passengers who flew into and out of Hilton Head last year is more than 71 percent fewer than a decade ago, statistics show. And that number is a more than 119 percent decrease from the airport's 172,000-passenger peak in 2007, when Delta Airlines also served the airport.
But that should not be cause for alarm, Sells and Rembold countered.
More than $13.6 million in ongoing and pending airport improvements will increase how many passengers American Airlines can put on each plane and could attract new service to the airport, Rembold said. The projects include tree trimming, relocating a taxiway along the runway and eventually extending the runway, with 95 percent of the cost to be paid for with state and federal grants.
Tree trimming and clearing at the airport's south end, along Matthews Drive and William Hilton Parkway, will improve American Airlines' take-off flight path, Rembold said. That work began earlier this month and will be completed by the summer, he said.
The clearer flight path should allow the company's planes to carry closer to their 48-passenger capacity, instead of limiting seating to avoid weight concerns, he added.
"It's about the ability to have dependability," Sells said of the improvements. Commercial traffic "will absolutely grow. I have no doubt. We keep active communication will all our contacts in the airline industry and they agree this a resort community they want to have access to."
The taxiway relocation project and associated on-airport improvements -- more than $4 million of work -- will begin next week and are expected to be complete in a year, said Pat Turney, an engineer with Talbert, Bright & Ellington Inc., which is managing the projects.
Final designs to extend the airport's runway from 4,300 feet to 5,000 feet are expected to be complete in March 2017, Rembold said. Construction of the estimated $9.25 million project is expected to take 18 months, he added.
"To me, it's impossible to be anything but hopeful," Rembold said. "We're finally embarking on these improvements that we've been talking about for a decade. I really believe you're going to see passengers increase once we can get these projects complete."
"The sky is not falling -- we've got it braced and we're building a foundation underneath it," he said with a laugh.
Hilton Head Island Airport passenger data at a glance
Click/tap anywhere on line for details. Small-screen users: If right portion of chart is offscreen, you can drag it to the left to see its full extent.
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Related content:
- County, Hilton Head to contribute $1 million to airport noise buffer for Palmetto Hall, Dec. 29, 2015
- Hilton Head Airport gets $13 million to relocate taxiway, trim trees, Oct. 14, 2015
- New customer parking enhancements at Hilton Head Island Airport, March 17, 2015
- New FAA approval sets Hilton Head Airport runway extension in motion, Feb. 11, 2015
This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Commercial passengers dropped 42 percent at Hilton Head Island Airport last year."