Florida, Illinois airports see increase in passengers for April
May 30, 2012, 11:17 am
Although passenger growth at Miami International Airport was slower than in the first quarter, April still showed improvements.
Miami International Airport saw an increase of 6.4 percent of passengers when compared to the year prior. The airport’s overall first quarter growth was 9.5 percent.
During the month of April, Miami International accommodated 3.16 million passengers. Of those travelers, 1.68 million were domestic passengers, up from 5.2 percent the year prior, and 1.49 million were international passengers, up 7.7 percent from the year before. Airport officials have said that the continued growth is due to international business, especially in South America.
As for DuPage Airport in suburban Chicago, air traffic increased fourfold because of the recent NATO conference. Restrictions were placed on O’Hare and Midway Airports in Chicago, and many of the flights were diverted to DuPage.
“The volume of traffic far exceeded our expectations,” DuPage Airport Executive Director David Bird said. “But it speaks well for the airport that we were able to handle it without delays, because we have the runway length, the hangar capacity and the personnel who are capable of handling that volume in stride.”
The airport usually sells around 7,000 gallons of aviation fuel to aircraft on a normal day, according to Bird, but on one day of the NATO conference the airport sold 28,200 gallons of aviation fuel. The airport has four runways, one being 7,570 feet, making it the second-longest in the Chicago area, following O’Hare.
Besides O'Hare and Midway, DuPage is the only airport in the region with a control tower that is always open. It also has a 24/7 airfield rescue and firefighting vehicle and a 1-million-square-foot apron and two instrument landing system approaches.
Many businesses in the Chicago area were stunned by little to no increase in traffic due to the NATO conference but many local vendors near the DuPage airport saw significant gains.
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