Coastal business | Myrtle Beach boardwalk ranked third in nation

Coastal Business

MYRTLE BEACH

Boardwalk ranked third in nation

The Myrtle Beach boardwalk came in third on National Geographic's top 10 list of the nation's boardwalks, the latest in a string of top rankings for the city and the new walkway.

The list credits the boardwalk with rehabilitating Myrtle Beach's downtown. Boardwalks across the country stacked up as follows:

1. Atlantic City Boardwalk, N.J.

2. Coney Island Boardwalk, Brooklyn, N.Y.

3. Myrtle Beach

4. Ocean City Boardwalk, Md.

5. Ocean Front Walk, Venice Beach, Calif.

6. Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk, Del.

7. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Calif.

8. Sandwich Boardwalk, Mass.

9. Virginia Beach Boardwalk, Va.

10. Wildwoods Boardwalk, N.J.

The boardwalk also found the national spotlight last month when NBC's "Today" show featured the walkway in a segment on Travel + Leisure magazine's boardwalks. Add that to Myrtle Beach's ranking in USA Today's Top 5 Affordable Destinations in May, which also prominently featured the boardwalk. The $6 million boardwalk, which opened in May, stretches 1.2 miles.

MYRTLE BEACH

Rise in June fliers held back by Spirit

Passengers flying out of Myrtle Beach rose last month compared with June 2009, but the number of fliers may have been held back by a pilots' strike at Spirit Airlines, an airport spokeswoman said.

More than 83,000 fliers took off from Myrtle Beach International Airport in June, up 13.3 percent over the same month last year, according to airport statistics released Tuesday.

That's the second year-over-year increase for 2010, following a surge of more than 30 percent in May. That month, 94,551 flew out of Myrtle Beach, an all-time record.

June numbers may have been closer to May's if not for a Spirit Airlines pilots' strike that grounded all flights for a week, airport spokeswoman Lauren Morris said. Spirit is the Grand Strand's largest carrier by volume, flying 279,044 passengers out of Myrtle Beach last year.

"There's no reason for me to think their numbers wouldn't have been similar to May," Morris said. "We could have had another month of high 20 to 30 percent increases."

Spirit flew 27,129 outbound passengers in June, down from more than 40,000 in May.

Overall, Morris said the airport is pleased with the increase in traffic. Year-to-date passengers for 2010 are outpacing 2009 with about 6.59 percent more outbound fliers so far this year.

The increase in fliers comes at a good time as the airport builds a new terminal to expand its capacity, Morris said. Crews broke ground on the construction in May.