Airport’s passenger traffic rebounds

Passenger growth at John Glenn Columbus International Airport got back on track in October, posting an increase after dipping 2.1 percent in September. The September decline was blamed on hurricane-related cancellations and an earlier start to cutbacks on seasonal flights added for the summer.

The airport served 672,152 passengers last month, a 3.6 percent increase over October 2016.

This year through October, the passenger total was 3.4 percent higher than a year earlier.

All the airport’s airlines except American Airlines and United Air Lines have seen an increase in passengers this year; those two have trimmed their number of flights by about 4 percent and experienced a reduction in passengers of less than 2 percent in the first 10 months of 2017.

At Rickenbacker Airport, Allegiant Air continued its strong growth. The budget carrier served 23,714 passengers last month, up 66.9 percent from the previous October. This year through October, Allegiant’s passenger total was up 34.8 percent, while flights have increased 39.6 percent.

Cargo operations at Rickenbacker also continued their strong growth. Total cargo tonnage was up 37.8 percent in October. Ethihad, Emirates, Cargolux and Cathay Pacific all saw growth of at least 25 percent, while UPS and FedEx saw single-digit percentage gains. Through October, cargo tonnage was up 28.9 percent this year.