Lafayette airport’s activity up 11 percent

Lafayette Regional Airport’s activity through July of this year is 11 percent higher than the comparable period last year, with May the all-time best month in airport history and June second best. July’s activity is the second best July on record and the sixth best month overall.

Boardings at Lafayette Regional airport in July reached 20,663, while another 20,568 passengers deplaned, also the second best on record for the month. Fueling the 11 percent increase was May’s extraordinary activity — 22,538 enplanements and 20,861 deplanements.

“The airlines faced some challenges during the month with bad weather and aircraft changes that reduced the number of available seats, but they were able to meet those challenges and still produce the sixth-best month ever for enplanements recorded at Lafayette Regional Airport,” Lafayette Airport Commission Chairman Paul A. Guilbeau said in announcing the monthly numbers. “It’s a credit to them and to the travelers of Acadiana who flew Lafayette.”

Load factors, the number of passengers flying on an airline compared to the number of seats available, continued to be high in July for all three carriers. Leading the way was United Airlines/Houston with 90.9 percent of seats filled, followed by Delta Connection/Atlanta with 86.5 percent and American Eagle/Dallas with 84 percent.

Cargo numbers for July remained high. Enplaned cargo totaled 791,042 pounds and deplaned cargo totaled 1,181,323 pounds.

The airport offers multiple daily nonstop flights to Atlanta, Dallas and Houston.

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