Airport officials ae urging Norwegian to expand to
additional cities
STEWART AIRPORT – Just what was expected has already happened with
the start up of European service from Stewart International Airport.
The Newburgh area airport’s encatchment area of the greater Mid-Hudson
Valley has expanded in the first few weeks of Norwegian Air’s service
to Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Norway.
People are coming to Stewart from outlying areas for the new flights and
low fares, airport Business Development Director Michael Torelli told
the Stewart Airport Commission on Tuesday.
“We’ve had pent up demand. Everybody around this area knows
about flying. A lot of us have ties to the (New York) City or northern
New Jersey; we all know Newark, LaGuardia and Kennedy, but I think with
the low-cost carriers, it actually spurred people to make additional choices,”
he said, noting that he booked tickets to Europe for $305 roundtrip, including
a bag.
“When you talk about $300, do you want to go to Albuquerque, do
you want to go to California” I don’t even think you can get
there for that. You can go to Europe for that now. So, those price points
are really spurring and I think pent up demand has caused some of that.”
The number of passengers using Stewart in the first six months of the
year increased by almost 8,000 with May and June numbers rising. June
was the first month in five years to break the 30,000 mark.
Norwegian began its flights in mid-June and Allegiant increased its flights
to Myrtle Beach this spring.
In the first six months of this year, passenger count was 147,021, compared
to 129,818 during the same period in 2016 and 137,190 in 2015.
Cargo tonnage in the first half of this year came in at 9,320, compared
with 10,160 tons in 2016 and 7,870 tons in 2015.
