Airport Traffic In Daytona Dips Slightly In January Compared To Last Year

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Daytona Beach, FL - The number of passengers taking to the skies at Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB) this January dropped slightly when compared to the same month in 2017, but yearly airport traffic totals still showed a 1.4% increase. Airport officials say that this January, airport traffic dropped .6% over the same month last year. 54,345 passengers flew in or out of DAB this January, compared with 54,685 passengers in January 2017. “A significant weather system in the northeast affected all three airlines for several days in January,” Airport Director Rick Karl explains. “American Airlines was impacted the most, causing nearly three days of flight cancellations for the carrier. In all, DAB had 21 flight cancellations in January.” Jay Cassens, Director of Business Development for DAB says, "If we would have had those 21 flights, and they hadn't all been canceled - American Airlines actually lost almost two days of operations - we would have been up probably 6% to 9% over last year. Sometimes these weather events are unpredictable and unfortunate for our numbers." Airport officials say load factors and capacity for the airport were all up for January, and that is an indicator of sustainable and continued growth in the market. Airport traffic at DAB was still up for the 12 months ending January 30, 2018. The airport says there were 720,485 passengers taking flight at DAB for those 12 months, as opposed to 710,410 passengers the 12 months before. That's an increase of about 1.4%. Cassens says he expects a strong year ahead for airport traffic. "Looking at the capacity trends, we see capacity increasing in March, June, and July over last year by about between 3% and 5%, so we should see that reflected in our passenger traffic numbers as well," explains Cassens. Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2018.