Allegiant helps Orlando Sanford to all-time passenger mark
Florida's Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) set its all-time passenger record in 2013, eclipsing a mark that had stood since 2008.
The airport's annual passenger count topped 2 million for the first time ever, with the official 2013 total coming in at 2,033,620. The previous record of 1,840,453 was set in 2008. The airport says it set monthly passenger records in seven out of the year's 12 months.
Sanford officials credited Allegiant – by far SFB's busiest carrier – for pushing passenger totals to record levels. SFB says Allegiant flew more than 77% of the airport's 2013 passenger traffic, accounting for 1,577,098 of the overall total.
The leisure carrier – which focuses on flying from small and medium-sized cities to popular vacation destinations – counts Orlando as one of its busiest destinations. SFB notes Allegiant inaugurated 10 new nonstop routes from the airport in 2013.
And, SFB adds that "with two additional destinations announced for February, … Allegiant now offers more nonstop destinations more nonstop destinations (54) than any airline from any airport in Central Florida."
Sanford is the secondary airport for Orlando, handling a fraction of the traffic seen at the city's primary aviation gateway.
The Orlando Sentinel puts it in perspective, writing SFB's "figures run counter to what has occurred at Orlando International, Central Florida's primary airport about 25 miles south. (Orlando International) served 29 million passengers through October, the latest month for which figures have been released. That was down 1.5% compared with the same period a year earlier. Officials at the airport expect to release year-end figures in February."
SFB is closer to the coast for fliers who choose to use Orlando as a gateway to beach destinations, but it is farther than Orlando International from most of central Florida's top tourist destinations. SFB is about 43 miles from Disney World and about 27 from downtown Orlando. Orlando International is about 17 and 12 miles from those destinations, respectively. For beach-goers, SFB is about 30 miles from New Smyrna Beach and about 45 from Daytona Beach.
In one of the few disappointing marks for SFB, the airport says its total number of international passengers dropped slightly in 2013 as compared to the year before. Still, the airport noted that Dutch carrier ArkeFly and Iceland's Icelandair each enjoyed year-over-year passenger increases to SFB.
SFB also lauded Thomson Airways for inaugurating Dreamliner service to the airport, which SFB notes gave it the "first regularly operated 787 Dreamliner flight to the state of Florida.
SFB expects to set another passenger record in 2014, projecting a passenger increase of about 10%.
Editor's note: Check back at Today in the Sky this week for other airports that had a record 2013. I'll highlight one additional record-setting airport each day this week.