Pittsburgh's Passenger Traffic Surges Nearly Seven Percent in September

Spurred by a 70 percent increase in new nonstop flights in 2016, passenger traffic at Pittsburgh International Airport surged nearly seven percent in September, the fifth consecutive month of growth.

Passenger traffic for the month of September totaled 708,895 passengers. September 2016 shows a 6.8 percent increase above September 2015, which had 663,753 total passengers. September 2016 was the busiest September month since 2007 at the airport.  Year-to-date total airport passenger traffic was up 2.1 percent, as 6,192,235 total passengers traveled through the airport through September.

“When new service comes in, you expect that it will stimulate the market, and that’s what we’re seeing here with the addition of new nonstop flights on new carriers including Allegiant, Frontier, Porter, Southern Airways Express and OneJet at Pittsburgh International,” said Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis. “We are pleased that carriers are recognizing the demand for air service in our region, and that they are already seeing high load factors on the new routes.”

Additionally, international traffic is up nearly 40 percent this year, bolstered by the one-year anniversary of Porter, expanded service on Air Canada, and service to the Caribbean on both American and Delta, as well as service to Paris on Delta. International traffic is expected to further increase during the summer 2017 season with new transatlantic service on WOW air to Reykjavik, Iceland and Condor to Frankfurt, Germany which were both announced this month.

Domestically, recent service gains on Frontier, OneJet and Southern, as well as new daily service to Los Angeles and St. Louis on Southwest also contributed to the increase in available seats and passengers.