After a 10-year period of recovery, New Orleans Louis Armstrong International has finally surpassed its pre-Katrina levels of passengers handled, and in the past month has announced a wave of new airlines and destinations as it continues to grow.
In 2004, the year before Hurricane Katrina hit the city of New Orleans, its airport handled 9,733,178 passengers. Few need reminding of the devastation caused by the tragedy, and in the years immediately after the disaster the airport naturally saw a slump as it sought to rebuild its position as Louisiana's principal gateway.
Now, in the 2014 figures released at the end of January, the airport celebrated handling 9,785,394 passengers, finally surpassing its former record.
Recovering to this level is not only part of the healing process, but also a result of major efforts to promote and grow the airport and encourage new services. The fact that 2014 saw a 6.3 percent growth over the previous year demonstrates how effective these efforts have been.
Recovery following Katrina was slow, and hampered further by tornado damage six months later. Most airlines eventually returned to the airport, but no new cities were added until as recent as 2010 when AirTran launched Milwaukee flights.
Since then the City of New Orleans, which manages the airport, has attracted nine new airlines and 19 additional nonstop destinations. A number of these are international, which had previously been lacking, with destinations such as Cancun, Punta Cana and Montego Bay.
"Our city is on a roll, and the airport is booming with more direct flights than ever before and more passengers than before Katrina," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said.
Alaska Airlines began a new flight from Seattle/Tacoma in February.
New airlines to come to the airport include leisure carriers such as Sanford, Florida-based Orange Air, which operates McDonnell Dougas MD-80s on behalf of BransonAir Express to vacation destinations, plus Allegiant Air with a number of seasonal routes, and Vacation Express to Cancun and Punta Cana. In addition, Alaska Airlines began a new flight from Seattle/Tacoma in February.
Southwest Airlines remains the dominant airline at New Orleans, with 360 weekly departures, followed by Delta and its important Atlanta link at 167 departures.
"Our most recent air service announcement is a significant achievement for our entire region," said a recent press release "On February 5, 2015, Copa Airlines announced it will launch nonstop service to Panama City, Panama from New Orleans starting June 24, 2015. This new international service creates new economic opportunity for our entire region's businesses and tourism industry."
Much is said in the industry about incentives offered by airports for air service, and its sustainability. New Orleans' growth is certainly a byproduct of such incentives, which have been offered since November 2006. Surpassing pre-Katrina levels were clearly the key then, as it offered credit to passenger fees to any airline that surpassed capacity from before the hurricane for a 12-month period.
Additionally, any airline starting service to a new city not previously served would see landing fees waived for the first year. This was later amended to offer the same incentive to a second airline starting to this new city.
"Our team has worked very hard this year to manage costs and implement aggressive incentives to further increase air service for our community," New Orleans Aviation Board Chairwoman Cheryl Teamer said. "I am thrilled to see these efforts come to fruition."
The return of passengers and airlines will begin to fill the airport's three operational concourses. Although Concourse A remains closed, plans are still underway to build a new terminal complex on the north side of the airport by 2018.
