Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) just released its passenger traffic numbers for August 2020, and that data shows that the airport is still struggling mightily when compared to the robust passenger numbers the airport was seeing at this time last year.
In August of 2019, air travelers in and out of Greensboro – and around the world for that matter – were happily jaunting across the country and the world in airplanes. However, now, one global pandemic later, those trips are much less frequent and much more onerous for travelers.
PTIA’s just-released passenger stats were presented to the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority – the board that oversees the airport – at the board’s Tuesday, Sept. 22 meeting. According to the ugly numbers, the number of airline passengers traveling in and out of PTIA was down a whopping 74 percent compared to those in August of 2019.
The calendar year to date number was down 62 percent when compared to the first eight months of 2019.
The number of cargo flights in and out of PTIA in August also dropped precipitously – those were down 38 percent compared to last year, with the cargo numbers falling 29 percent year to date. Cargo numbers are holding up better than passenger stats because, even in a pandemic, people need to conduct purchases and the services of companies like Amazon and Fed Ex are still in high demand.
Though these numbers are greatly disappointing to airport staff they’re much better than the numbers earlier this year right after the pandemic hit. Not long after that, the airport had at least one day when there were more people working at PTIA than flying through it.
Airport staff used to project guesstimates of future air travel based on the number of seats offered by airlines at PTIA in future months. However, due to ongoing airline schedule changes, projected flights and seats for October 2020 aren’t being released by PTIA.
PTI messed up years ago when they quit being a hub. It used to be really nice to fly in and out of GSO back in the day. It was easy to get to, flights were inexpensive, there were lots of airline choices. With the loss of Piedmont Airlines, we lost so much in the way of good air travel in our area and got stuck with higher prices, limited choices, flights from CLT or RDU. Of course, traffic is down at PTI. I’m leaving this weekend to go on a short trip to Disney World (meeting a cousin from CA, the first trip ever doing that). I searched for flights remembering that it was around $49 round trip from GSO. I was shocked to see that it cost more to fly to Orlando than to fly to SFO! I ended up flying from CLT on Spirit Airlines and having to have someone drive me down there which will take about as long as my flight. It’s sad. PTI has lost so much of what once made it special, but then so has Greensboro.
You know, the airport doesn’t decide to be a hub, the airlines decide to put hubs there.
Continental Lite – failed
Eastwind – failed
Skybus – failed
Unless you are willing to set up your own airline, the only way to get better service here is to stop using RDU.
Exactly what is international about PTIA?
The have a flight to South Carolina.
International?
Cargo flights between GSO and Monterrey, Queretaro and Saltillo, Mexico. Cargo flights to and from Windsor and Toronto. The massive incoming direct traffic services by Haeco, direct HondaJet purchased aircraft to international destinations. Plus corporate jet flights. Samaritans Purse flights out of GSO to and from all over the world direct.
Commercial passenger are a small part of the airport people.
The PIT airport is loosening out because it costs so much money to fly out of there and to fly in there. My son came from ORGEN to here and it was 200.00 more because if he went to charlotte it would have been less money. Someone needs to do something to change that.
In actuality, GSO has the cheapest takeoff, storage and landing fees of the 5 major airports in NC. Ticket fees have very little to do with the airport, but supply and demand. Flying for work, there are many times RDU and CLT are more expensive than GSO, and many times not. It is hit or miss based on business capacity management,.