Airport saw biggest passenger growth last year since 2000
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh International Airport last year had its best year for growth since 2000, with an 8.2 percent increase in passenger traffic over 2016, the Allegheny County Airport Authority announced Friday.
At the authority’s monthly board of directors meeting, CEO Christina Cassotis announced that with 744,075 passengers last month, the airport fell just short of 9 million for the year.
December 2017 represented a 13 percent increase in passengers and a 9.8 percent increase in seats over the previous year, making it the highest-traffic December since 2006.
The board also announced the appointment of Dan Molloy, managing director of R.W. Block Consulting, as the prog r a m director and owner’s representative for the airport’s planned $1.1 billion redevelopment.
Mr. Molloy spent the past six years as acting chief development officer for the Abu Dhabi Airports Co., directing a $10 billion capital program, including the construction of a new airport terminal.
The Pittsburgh International redevelopment plan involves abandoning the current landside terminal and inter-terminal tram, replacing them with a new landside building between terminals C and D, as well as a reduction in gates from 75 to 51.
Ms. Cassotis said the planned redevelopment and the growing passenger numbers go hand in hand.
“We’re building for growth,” she said. “A smaller, more efficient airport that can accommodate more growth.”
“This community was so under-served from an air service perspective that I have always seen the growth coming,” she said, although the speed of the growth surprised her.
More of the growth came from increasing passenger numbers than from increasing seat numbers, said Ms. Cassotis, showing that the demand was there for new routes that were put in place in 2017.
The airport has 73 destinations and already has announced 11 new routes for 2018, including Montreal, Seattle and Cancun.
Ms. Cassotis said that a successful bid for Amazon’s second headquarters would not impact the redevelopment plan, because growth is expected. The e-commerce and web services giant named Pittsburgh on its 20-city short list Thursday.
In the short term, Mr. Molloy said he will focus on hiring designers and program managers. The board approved $1.095 million for R.W. Block, so Mr. Molloy will be able to hire some people from his firm, he said.
“Ideally, we’ll hire as much from Pittsburgh as we can, but it’s a balance,” said Mr. Molloy, pointing out that some expertise from national companies will be needed.