Passenger totals up in January, despite Frontier cuts

Coming off a near-record year, passenger numbers at Columbus’ main airport remained on an upward trajectory in January — but one with more modest growth. Statistics for January were released at the monthly board meeting of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority on Tuesday afternoon at John Glenn Columbus International Airport.

Passenger totals ticked up 1.7 percent for the month, with 530,032 passengers using the John Glenn Airport.

All but one airline reported at least a small increase in January.

Frontier Airlines had a 26.3 percent drop year-over-year as it stopped flights to Las Vegas and cut back on flights to Denver from Columbus. A call to Frontier Airlines seeking comment on the cuts was not returned.

The ultra-low-cost airlines including Frontier and Spirit Airlines, which just launched service at John Glenn Airport, tend to be quicker than traditional airlines to drop routes that aren’t performing well. Las Vegas and Denver still have other daily nonstop options from Columbus: Southwest serves both Las Vegas and Denver; United flies to Denver; and Las Vegas is among the routes just launched by Spirit.

Spirit flights started Feb. 15, so those numbers will start showing up in the figures released next month. In addition to Las Vegas and three Florida destinations launched this month, Spirit will add flights next month to New Orleans and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

In April, Frontier will add service between Columbus and Austin, Texas. Allegiant Air, the only scheduled passenger airline at Rickenbacker Airport, added flights to Austin from that airport two weeks ago.

Allegiant continued to grow at Rickenbacker, with a 6.8 percent increase in monthly passengers to 11,249. Cargo operations also saw ongoing strength at Rickenbacker, with a 13.8 percent increase in cargo weight led by Etihad and Emirates.