Allegiant jet at Stewart gate
STEWART AIRPORT – Stewart Airport may not have a large number of
daily flights, but those operating at the Newburgh area airport are doing
well.
The load factors for the flights – the number of people compared
with the number of seats on a plane – were quite high in March,
said Michael Torelli, the airport’s business development director.
“We had airport wide an 86 percent load factor and that was led
by Allegiant, one of our newer airlines that came in about a year-and-a-half
ago. They were at 96 percent load factor; so very, very good in regards
to that,” he said.
The Allegiant flights are to St. Pete-Clearwater. Florida service has
traditionally been very popular at Stewart. JetBlue Airways also flies
to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.
Passenger levels during the first three months of the year continued to
fall below previous year levels. This year the number of people to use
Stewart from January to March was 63,062. That compared with 2014 with
71,960 people, 2013 with 75,925 people, and 2012 with 94,604 people.
With high load factors and lower overall passenger counts, that is reflective
of some airlines downsizing the aircraft they are using at Stewart.
Cargo levels during the first three months were up this year over 2014
with 3,771 tons carried in 2015 and 1,239 tons carried last year. In the
first quarter of 2013, 1,579 tons were carried and in 2012, 1,551 tons
were carried.
