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Though fares may be up at the Chattanooga airport, partly due to the Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines merger, Chattanooga Airport Authority President and CEO Mike Landguth says Chattanooga passengers still have many reasons to be happy.
Landguth told the MidTown Chamber Council at its November meeting that in cities all over the country, passenger boardings are down 5 to 10 percent, but in Chattanooga the monthly numbers are up.
Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport Authority President and CEO Mike Landguth, left, is the featured speaker at the MidTown Chamber Council’s November meeting. He visits with MidTown Chamber Council secretary Jamie Curtis, center, and Cheryl Key of John P. Franklin Funeral Home before the meeting starts.
“We’re really up by 4 percent, which is really beating the national trend,” he said. “I think people are going to be excited about a community that is actually growing.”
Five airlines currently fly out of Chattanooga to eight destinations nonstop: Atlanta, Dallas, Memphis, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Charlotte, N.C., Tampa and Orlando.
Landguth said Delta cut its daily flights in most cities while adding flights in Chattanooga — one to Memphis and one to Atlanta — just this fall.
He said there are 11 flights leaving Chattanooga some days.
“These flights are full,” he said. “It’s a challenge for some of the businesses because we’re starting to run full.”
Landguth credited the growing number of Chattanooga passengers to Chattanooga’s growing energy sector and to its growing auto cluster, brought by Volkswagen and its suppliers.
Landguth said he is working to attract more airlines and to schedule more flights to fly directly out of Chattanooga, which will lower rates.
“When you’re buying a ticket out of Chattanooga,” he said, “you’re investing in our local community.”
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