More Passengers Continuing to Use Bradley International Airport

After the first two months of 2011, Bradley International Airport is continuing to see passenger growth for nearly a year, Eric N. Waldron, airport administrator, told the board of directors Thursday.

In January, the airport saw enplanements increase by 10 percent over the same month in 2010, Waldron said. While not all airlines have reported their February numbers, the incomplete statistics show a 2 percent increase over February 2010, Waldron said.

“I think this is eight months of positive growth,” Waldron said. “I’m guardedly optimistic.” 

Those numbers come on top of the improvements officials saw in 2010. The airport rebounded from a sluggish start to 2010 to experience 5.4 million "enplaned" and "deplaned" passengers compared to the 5.3 million that went through the airport in 2009.

Overall, enplanements, passengers flying out of Bradley, increased by 2 percent during 2010. In particular, the last seven months of 2010 saw consistent increases in enplanements compared to 2009, highlighted by a 12 percent increase in November and 13 percent rise in December, officials said.

The increase in passenger traffic has been credited in part to expanded travel options for passengers such as jetBlue debuting in November and Frontier in September. Waldron said Thursday that officials are marketing and meeting with various airline officials to further expand service from new and existing airlines at Bradley.

In a recent meeting with jetBlue officials, the airline said it is encouraged by its traffic here and sees further growth opportunities, Waldron said.

“We’re actively continuing to move in that area,” he said.

Bradley International Airport is the second largest in New England and contributes $4 billion in economic activity to the state of Connecticut and the surrounding region, officials said.