Eisenhower airport sees drop in number of passengers through first two months of 2015

The number of airline passengers using Wichita Eisenhower National Airport was down 2.3 percent in the first two months of 2015.

The Wichita Airport Authority’s Aviation Activity Report said the number of passengers using the airport in January and February totaled 201,974. That compares with 206,719 total passengers in the first two months of 2014, the report said.

The report said that in January there was one less daily departure at Eisenhower than in January 2014. But in February, there were two additional daily departures – 33 – compared with 31 in February 2014.

Valerie Wise, the city’s air service and business development manager, said Tuesday that she thinks bad weather and less capacity affected passenger counts in January and February.

Wise said there were weather-related flight cancellations at Eisenhower at the end of February.

She also thinks that airplane changes by airlines serving Eisenhower could have reduced the number of seats flying to and from the airport.

“They might have downgraded to smaller aircraft,” she said. “That would be why we have less capacity but more flights.”

But the airport was up in another measure: air cargo.

Air cargo arriving and leaving the airport was up 4.34 percent in the first two months of 2015. The report said 4,446 tons of air cargo moved through Eisenhower in January and February combined, compared with 4,261 tons in the same two months in 2014.

This story was originally published April 14, 2015 at 10:17 AM with the headline "Eisenhower airport sees drop in number of passengers through first two months of 2015."