Myrtle Beach airport on track for record year of passenger traffic

Myrtle Beach International Airport is on track to see a record number of passengers this year that local tourism officials say is due to a strong airline industry that increased the number of flights during the spring and fall.

“We anticipated a good year with increased capacity, but these numbers exceeded our expectation, which is very encouraging,” said Brad Dean, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. “We’re thrilled to see this come to fruition.”

About 878,518 passengers have journeyed here this year through Nov. 30, up from the 872,734 passengers that arrived by commercial airlines at the airport in all of 2014, according to numbers recently released by the airport.

The airport averaged 38,000 passengers in December over the last four years, and is about 3,200 passengers away from breaking the record set in 2011 of 881,694 passengers.

The 11-month total also beats previous annual numbers of 833,568 in 2013, as well as the 2012 total of 742,097.

Kirk Lovell, assistant director of Horry County Airports, said additional markets added by Allegiant Air helped boost the number of that airline’s flights from 50,000 last year to nearly 80,000 this year -- a contributing factor in setting this year’s record.

“Allegiant has been growing the market pretty aggressively,” Lovell said.

“It’s always about a strong market, and more importantly, a strong airline industry,” Lovell said. “So obviously, if an airline is not profitable or growing, they’re not going to add more service or capacity in the market.”

Allegiant announced in November that it would increase flights from three to five times a week from Pittsburgh in 2016 to meet increased demand.

Dean said Allegiant was key to boosting tourism during the early spring and fall seasons -- an increase confirmed by the report of nearly 6,600 more passengers during April, May and September than the same months in 2014.

“That bodes well for future expansions, that is the underlying theme in the numbers,” Dean said.

Bill Golden, president of marketing cooperative Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, said the growth of traffic through the airport is a boom for the local economy, especially the golf industry, which attracts more visitors in the shoulder seasons.

“It shows that demand is ever increasing -- consumers will travel from farther away and that bodes well for the entire destination,” Golden said.

Spirit Airlines has flown nearly 470,000 tourists to the Myrtle Beach area so far this year, while American Airlines has delivered more than 162,000 passengers, and more than 142,000 passengers arrived by Delta Air Lines, according to airport statistics. Those three airlines fly into Myrtle Beach year-round.

Allegiant, a seasonal airline, flew in nearly 80,000 passengers this year, United flew nearly 15,000 passengers, WestJet carried more than 6,000 passengers.

“It’s always great when more tourists are coming in,” Lovell said. “The market looks like we’ve been on the rebound for a couple of years now.”

Reach Hudson at 843-444-1765

Twitter: @AudreyHudson

This story was originally published December 14, 2015 at 4:34 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach airport on track for record year of passenger traffic."