The San Antonio International Airport is on track to serve a record 10 million passengers in 2018, Aviation Director Russ Handy said Tuesday.
At a City Council budget meeting, Handy touted the airport’s growth over last year and an award from an international airport organization recognizing San Antonio for its outstanding customer experience and service.
“It was a landmark year,” he said.
The airport set records in July for passenger growth, domestic traffic, international traffic, and cargo moved through the airport. More than 900,000 passengers came through the airport in July – the record for a one-month period, Handy said. The number of nonstop flights also increased, from 35 destinations in 2016 to 53 this year.
A news release from the airport attributed the passenger growth to more routes and nonstop flights added by American, Southwest, and Frontier airlines. The release also said San Antonio International Airport processed more than 22 million pounds of cargo – a 15 percent increase from year to year.
As chief air service development officer, Brian Pratte is tasked with attracting airlines to San Antonio.
“There are about 425 commercial airports throughout the U.S., and we’re all vying for the same air service the next airport is,” Pratte said. “There’s a finite source of air service available.”
Though airlines generally grow year to year, the growth is low, Pratte said. And though the local airport has gained more direct flights, retaining flights requires work too. He and his team have to show airlines the airport’s demand and why people fly to and from San Antonio, he said.
“You’ve got to put forth the best business case, and it’s all based on credible data,” Pratte said. “You want to prove you’re the best option out there.”
Councilman Clayton Perry (D10) asked how San Antonio’s airport fees measures up to those of other cities. According to Handy, the aviation team studies fee comparisons often, and San Antonio remains “very competitive.”
“I would say we’re about middle of the road for airports of similar size [for our fees],” Handy said.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg praised Handy and the rest of the aviation team for helping grow the airport’s traffic.
“We’ve criticized our airport for not having many direct connections, for being slow growing, and we’ve lamented our position within the landscape of air service within the southern United States,” Nirenberg said.
He added that a larger airport does not lead to a stronger economy, contrary to opinions he’s heard before. San Antonio must first have a strong business climate to create the demand for a competitive airport, he said.
“It’s driven me nuts that the airport is the receptacle of all the excuses we make for the San Antonio economy,” Nirenberg said.
The mayor also said he wants the airport to be competitive in international air service. San Antonio is well situated as a “gateway” to Latin America.
According to Handy, San Antonio will host top executives of Frontier Airlines and Mexican economy airline Volaris early next month. Pratte said the event will launch the two companies’ codeshare agreement, meaning Frontier can now sell tickets on Volaris’ platform and vice versa.
“Someone could theoretically start their trip in Memphis on Frontier, fly to San Antonio, change planes, get onto a Volaris aircraft and go to Mexico City,” Pratte said.
No one ever seems to think of those of us who live under the path of the flights of the increasing number of jets from the airport. Our patio lies dormant year round because it is useless to have friends over for holidays for a tipical barbecue. Even our fixed feral cat refuses to live out in back given the deafening noise starting at 4:30 am and continuing all day.
I suggest moving the airport away from the middle of the city or else implement the quiet take off and quiet landing laws imposed on jets in SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
Classic. Buy a house near the airport and complain about the noise.
We are a considerable distance from the airport and still deal with the noise. We went by the house and different times of the day and evening and throughout the week, but unbeknownst to us, they were doing repairs on that runway which has the flight path over our neighborhood. Within a month of moving in, the flights started back up. We learned to adjust, with outbound flights happening in the mornings and the evenings.
This weekend, they were doing repairs to one of the major inbound runways, and we had inbound flights every 15-20 minutes long all weekend.
We didn’t buy a house “near the airport”.
Interesting there are “quiet” takeoffs and landings, thank you for this Gustavo. If possible here, then “yes!” by all means possible.
Houstonian in San Antonio here…has SA lost opportunities to snag major corporations due to its limited flights to parts of the country and world?
Is that the real reason AT&T moved to Dallas?
When we travel the SA airport is virtually empty. I venture to say Houston Intercontinental processes 10K passengers in a day.
Your comment about AT&T moving to Dallas because of our airport is one that is repeated often. So ask yourself, why did AT&T move from St. Louis to SA in the first place? Did it not evaluate our air service before it came here? Simple answer: Where AT&T’s headquarters is really doesn’t matter that much. It has offices and operations all over the country. The previous CEO, Ed Whitacre, wanted to live here and wanted the headquarters to be here. His successor, Randall Stephenson, preferred Dallas. Mr. Whitacre still lives here, by the way.
I wonder if Pratte was required to provide EVIDENCE of what he ‘said’ at the council meeting!
I am always Cynical when the response to cost questions (airport fees) are given the VAGUE response ‘we are competitive.’ Sounds great, means NOTHING!
Atlanta’s Hartsfield airport processes 50 million passengers per year. San Antonio’s airport doesn’t even make the top 60 in terms of traffic. Just admit it, SA airport is never going to be world class. Might be OK. But its hardly newsworthy to hit a million passengers a year.
For persons who don’t travel for a living (and for many who do), the trade-off in quality of life of living in SA is well worth having to change planes in Atlanta now and then.