Airport Board VP Del Lee said passengers, flights, airlines, commercial activity and food and drink sales all were up in 2017.
WEST BAY — Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport passenger numbers and flights have continued to increase so much the airport board is considering a terminal expansion several years before expected, officials said Wednesday.
Airport board vice president Del Lee, speaking to the investors and executive committee of the Bay Economic Development Alliance, gave a year-in-review presentation for 2017 and outlined upcoming goals for 2018 at the airport.
Total operations at ECP airport — which includes commercial, military and general aviation flights — increased by 2.38 percent from 2016 to 2017, Lee said, and total passengers increased 4.65 percent.
“Notice the load factors for 2017,” Lee told the crowd at the Bland Center at Florida State University Panama City. “These are really good numbers for the airlines.”
Lee dished out factoids on 2017: The airport had 939,437 passengers, a 4.4 percent increase; there were an average of 2,574 daily passengers; there were more than 149,470 parking lot transactions.
As for food and drink at the airport, there were 44,728 cups of coffee, 25,122 chicken fingers, 20,560 gallons of water and 3,286 soda gallons sold.
Lee said passenger traffic also is increasing at the airport during the shoulder months of November through March, thanks in part to the efforts of the Bay Tourist Development Council to bring in events.
“It’s hard not to notice the strong growth in the summer season,” he said.
Lee said the airport’s future in 2018 is expected to be bright. ECP’s current market share for Panhandle airports is at 21 percent, which is down two points after Allegiant Airlines recently started service at Destin/Fort Walton Beach Airport, but ECP still is seeing passenger growth.
Lee said ECP’s market share, as a percentage of the four airports in the Panhandle, remained almost constant from 2011 to 2016, but from 2016 to 2017 there was an increase of about 40,000 passengers.
“There is no reason to worry about the loss of market share, especially with the steady growth we have seen,” he said.
Looking forward, Southwest Airline’s service to Austin, Texas, and Chicago is returning this summer, along with a new flight to Denver. The airport also has a new carrier, American Airlines, which will be offering flights to the airline’s hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte starting June 7. Lee said the service will allow access to more than 200 destinations and more than 25 countries.
“We at the airport board and staff are very excited to welcome American Airlines,” Lee said, emphasizing that staff are continually marketing the region to new airlines.
Lee said general aviation also has continued to grow at ECP, with increases in fuel sales and the number of corporate and private hangars.
After the meeting, airport executive director Parker McClellan said the board soon will hold a workshop to answer this question: “What does the airport need to do to prepare for the future?”
“We’re looking at ramp expansions, concourse expansion around the gates, things like that,” McClellan said.
The airport opened for commercial flights on May 23, 2010, and was the first international airport in the United States designed and built since the Sept. 11 attacks. The airport’s passenger numbers have increased from about 225,000 in its first year of operation to more than 939,000 last year.
“That is a tremendous significant increase in total passenger traffic,” said Jorge Gonzalez, chairman of the EDA board.
Carol Roberts, president of the Bay County Chamber of Commerce, said the figures clearly show the airport is a success, and thanked EDA members who supported it.
“Who would have ever have thought that less than eight years later we’d be talking about expansion of this airport that this entire community took a beating over?” she said. “It just kind of gives me chill bumps to see this success story and to know that all these folks in this room stepped up to the plate and did the right thing.”