© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Eisenhower Airport Sees Near-Record Traffic In 2016

Eisenhower National Airport Facebook
More than 1.6 million passengers flew in or out of Wichita's airport in 2016.

Wichita’s Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport says it had its second busiest year in 2016.

More than 1.6 million passengers flew in and out of the airport last year, an increase of 2 percent over 2015. June, September and October all set monthly records. The airport’s busiest year was 2008, when it was Mid-Continent Airport.

Airport spokeswoman Valerie Wise presented the data at this week’s mayor’s briefing.

“The growth is due in part to the addition of 3 new non-stop destinations: Phoenix, St. Louis and Orlando-Sanford; the low fares to more destinations; plus the convenience and the modern new terminal continue to draw passengers," she said.

Credit flywichita.com

The average fare in the third quarter of 2016 was about $375, down 35 percent from the same period in 2000, when average fares neared $600. Wise said low-fare airlines have helped push down prices.

--

Follow Nadya Faulx on Twitter @NadyaFaulx.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.