Palmdale airport traffic down

9 percent fewer passengers since last May

The airport served a total of 2,769 passengers in May, down from 3,043 the previous year, the Los Angeles Department of Airports reported.

This decline from the previous year may be attributed to the fact that while the airport offered two carriers last year, it now offers only one, said Cora Fossett, department spokeswoman.

SkyWest Airlines pulled out of the Palmdale Regional Airport at the end of February, leaving only United Express to serve passengers at the airport.

March figures showed a 40 percent drop in passenger traffic following SkyWest's departure. That gap has been slowly closing in recent months.

Overall movements at the airport, as recorded by the Federal Aviation Administration, were also down in May, dropping 21.7 percent from 5,506 operations in 1993 to 4,311 a year later.

Fossett said a factor could be the loss of one air carrier.

Although the passenger total for the month of May showed a decrease from the same month in the previous year, the number of passengers served during the fivemonth period of January through May actually increased 28 percent over the same period in 1993.

In the first five months of this year, the airport served 18,266 passengers, compared to 14,221 in the same months a year earlier.

This period encompasses the departure of SkyWest.

The jump over the previous year's total during this time may be the effect of the Jan. 17 earthquake, Fossett said, when freeway closures made air travel an attractive alternative for many residents traveling to Los Angeles.

"At the beginning of this year we had a tremendous increase (in air travel) because of the earthquake," she said, noting that both carriers at that time were operating with full loads.

That additional traffic was enough to make up for the loss of SkyWest in the overall total for the year thus far, she said.

While the airport has seen a decline in use with the return of ground transportation following the earthquake and the loss of one carrier, the airport department does not have any specific plans for boosting use, Fossett said, although it is supportive of other organizations that seek to promote the Palmdale Regional Airport.

"We want our airports to be profitable, both for the carriers and the city department," she said.

To that end, community organizations such as the Palmdale Regional Airport Advisory Committee have had an impact.

"It certainly keeps Palmdale in management's eye," she said.