Airport's year busiest; nonstop flights help

Traffic at Huntsville International Airport passed the previous passenger record year after only 11 months.

By the end of November, the number of passengers had reached 1,084,424, according to airport figures. That's 2,075 more passengers than in 2000, the airport's previous busiest year on record.

The number of passengers for all of 2003 was 1,051,644.

"Certainly the lower fares we've had in the last few months have contributed greatly to this substantial increase," said Rick Tucker, executive director of the Port of Huntsville, which includes the airport. Airport officials also credit additional nonstop flights with making travel from Huntsville more convenient.

"We're encouraged that this trend will continue," Tucker said.

Starting Oct. 1, low-cost carrier Independence Air started service from Huntsville to its hub at Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., for as low as $69 one-way. The airline started with six daily nonstop flights to Dulles with connecting flights from there to 30 cities across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

A month later, Independence Air launched two daily nonstop flights to both Orlando and Tampa from Huntsville.

Delta Air Lines added two daily nonstop flights to Tampa in November through its Atlantic Southeast Airlines.

The number of Independence Air passengers at the Huntsville airport grew from 8,630 in October, for 7.61 percent of the market here, to 11,422 in November, for 10.5 percent of the market. Delta and its regional carriers serving Huntsville captured nearly 46 percent of the traffic here in November with almost 50,000 passengers.

Passenger traffic at Huntsville Intentional was up 23.5 percent for November over the same month last year.