PIA Booms in January-February; Bust Likely for March-April
Passenger traffic at grew significantly at the Peoria Int'l Airport in the first two months of 2020.
According the the airport's press release on Thursday, both January and February figures broke records with 51,436 and 52,825 passengers, respectively. The former broke a record for the month set in 2017 while the latter broke a record set just last year.
Having an extra day in February was likely the biggest factor in the rise in passenger traffic. Unfortunately, a sudden decline in traffic this month brought on by the coronavirus pandemic will cause significant service cutbacks. Expect April to be slow as well.
Both business and leisure travel will be affected, so it is possible that Allegiant Air will suspend most if not all service for a few weeks (or more) while American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express will reduce frequencies and even suspend some service altogether (Delta Connection's single daily roundtrip to Minneapolis/St. Paul comes to mind). Once the threat is lifted, however, I expect traffic to return and service levels to resume quickly.
Having an extra day in February was likely the biggest factor in the rise in passenger traffic. Unfortunately, a sudden decline in traffic this month brought on by the coronavirus pandemic will cause significant service cutbacks. Expect April to be slow as well.
Both business and leisure travel will be affected, so it is possible that Allegiant Air will suspend most if not all service for a few weeks (or more) while American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express will reduce frequencies and even suspend some service altogether (Delta Connection's single daily roundtrip to Minneapolis/St. Paul comes to mind). Once the threat is lifted, however, I expect traffic to return and service levels to resume quickly.
- David P. Jordan
Nice to see. Sad about what is happening. It looks like overall the economy did very well in February.
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