It’s not you. It’s the crowds. Myrtle Beach airport sees record flight traffic in October
Myrtle Beach International Airport had more people flying in and out during October than ever before.
Last month, 297,075 people arrived and departed from the airport, a 31% increase from October 2019, according to a news release from the airport Monday.
Not only that, between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31 of this year, the total number of passengers going through the airport had already surpassed the entire calendar year for 2019, when the previous record was set. The airport previously broke travel records in June and July when it had the busiest month for any airport in South Carolina ever.
“After a historic summer, we’re thrilled to see strong passenger traffic continue throughout the fall months,” Horry County director of airports Scott Van Moppes said in a news release.
The record-breaking travel hasn’t been always a good thing for travelers, however. The airport had hours-long lines at TSA and rental car pickups for much of the summer, creating intense headaches for visitors who had long seen the airport has a breeze to get through.
Nine airlines operate at MYR: Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, Porter, Southwest, Spirit, Sun Country and United. Southwest was the newest addition to the airport this year, arriving in May and marking one of the airport’s biggest expansions in years now that it is finally served by the nation’s largest domestic air carrier.
The record-breaking year for passenger traffic was fueled by Southwest coming to MYR but also by airlines like Frontier, United and Spirit collectively adding hundreds of new flights per week to the destination.
Southwest’s arrival also means more off-season flight availability. In past years, the airport shut down roughly half the terminal during the winter months. The closure allowed the airport to save on operating costs like cleaning, but Southwest has requested it stay open entirely this year, a sign of Myrtle Beach’s growing significance as a year-around vacation destination.
“Myrtle Beach is on a fast track to becoming a year-round destination and our airline partners have reacted to that demand by extending seasonal markets that would have historically ended after summer concluded,” Van Moppes said in the news release. “We look forward to the ability to offer our travelers more choices than ever as we move into this next season and we thank our airline partners for their continued commitment to MYR.”
The off-season flight availability could also benefit the region’s Canadian snowbird visitors, who bring in tens of millions of dollars in each year but were barred from traveling here last year due to the closed border. The border finally fully reopened to nonessential travel for vaccinated visitors on Nov. 8.
