Passenger traffic at Stewart International Airport here grew in the last two months of the year as Allegiant Air began service to the Tampa Bay area, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reported today.
The Stewart Airport Commission heard a briefing this morning that said the November passenger use of the carriers grew by 4 percent, largely because of new service begun Oct. 31 by Allegiant. The December traffic rose by 3.3 percent versus year-ago levels.
Allegiant flies to the Saint Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport located between those two cities. Michael Torelli, business development specialist at Stewart, which is operated by the Port Authority, said Allegiant had added passengers with its twice-weekly flights and that the numbers show “a positive trend.”
The year as a whole, however, was down 12.2 percent with a total of 320,315 passengers. That figure was also lower than 2010 and 2011. Loss of some of the airline scheduled flights in recent years has been cutting into the totals.
The commission heard a report on how important airport economic activity is for the state from Gerardo Mendoza, acting head of the Department of Transportation’s Aviation Bureau.
In a 2011 study, the department found Stewart had an annual total economic impact of about $750 million including jobs of all employers associated with the facility and the “multiplier effect” of indirect employment and total expenditures.