Source: The Business Journal of Milwaukee Author: 01/25/2010
Subject Concerned: Airlines Airport
Passenger traffic in December 2009 at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee reached a record level for the month, according to figures released on Jan. 25.
The December total of 728,067 passengers represented a 34 percent increase over the December 2008 total of 543,679 passengers.
For all of 2009, Mitchell's passenger total declined 0.13 percent to 7,946,562 from 2008's record total of 7,956,968. Passenger totals for each of the first eight months of 2009 decreased as a result of flight reductions at Mitchell. However, record passenger totals were recorded in each of the last four months of the year.
Nationwide, passenger traffic declined 6 percent in 2009 compared with 2008, according to the Air Transport Association.
"AirTran, Midwest, Frontier and Delta all added flights to Mitchell in 2009, and with the start-up of Southwest Airlines in November, the airport served 600,683 more passengers in the final four months of the year than in the same period of 2008," Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker said. "It was a phenomenal closeout to the year."
Mitchell also has been attracting larger numbers of passengers from northern Illinois, airport director Barry Bateman said.
"For the last six months of 2009, the number of Illinois cars in our parking areas averaged over 10 percent," Bateman said. "The Milwaukee-Chicago area is a busy region for air travel, and Mitchell International has become one of the most price-competitive airports in the nation."