The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport lost 1.9 percent of its departing flights between 2007 and 2012, but the airport rates considerably better than most of its similar-sized peers, a new study shows.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology study classifies the Pittston Twp. airport among 249 "non-hub" airports that boarded at least 10,000 passengers but accounted for less than 0.05 percent of total travelers in the country.
The average drop in domestic departures among all airports in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's category was 15.4 percent.
Meanwhile, other non-hub airports across the country generally lost many passengers, unlike their counterpart in Northeast Pennsylvania, which actually gained 5.4 percent in passengers during the five-year period.
The industry's trend toward using larger airplanes explains why there were fewer flights yet more travelers locally.
"Most airports have seen a reduction in scheduled domestic flights as a result of a difficult global economic climate and a U.S. recession, high and volatile fuel prices, and a recent trend of 'capacity discipline' strategies by major airlines," the report said. "The nation's small- and medium-sized airports have been disproportionately affected by these reductions in scheduled domestic flights, and recent airline behavior appears to signal ... consolidation of service at the largest airports with fewer direct flights to smaller airports."
Airport Director Barry Centini said the local travel hub would have lost a similar amount of traffic to most other similar-sized airports nationally if not for the natural gas boom in the Marcellus Shale.
Among long-term cars parked in the airport's lot, Mr. Centini said 20.4 percent of vehicles are from out of state, with only 9 percent from New York and New Jersey.
Meanwhile, 2.3 percent of vehicles are from Texas, 1.1 percent from Louisiana, and 2 percent from Mississippi, Illinois, Florida and Arizona - states from which many natural gas drillers travel to the region.
Mr. Centini noted the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area unemployment rate is 9.6 percent, the worst in the state, and said people who do not have jobs and disposable income are less likely to travel.
Ideally, he said the airport will eventually be able to benefit from a strong local job market in addition to the growing natural gas industry.
Airport officials have been making moves to ensure the local travel hub has the capacity to grow in case new carriers want to start flying out of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton or businesses want a permanent hangar.
Among those moves Mr. Centini cited are a recently completed $6.4 million project to build an area where hangar space could be added. Airport officials also continue to talk about ways to add parking.
Contact the writer: kwind@timesshamrock.com, @kwindTT on Twitter