Passenger boardings at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport increased nearly 15% last month compared to June 2024 as a trend of increased passenger activity there continues.
Airport Director Carl Beardsley Jr.’s monthly report, presented Thursday to members of the bicounty airport board of Lackawanna and Luzerne County officials, notes “passenger enplanements” for June totaled 22,671. That’s a 14.4% increase from the 19,812 boardings reported for June 2024.
It marked yet another month of increased boardings compared to the same month the year prior. Among other examples, April saw a 26.4% increase in boardings compared to April 2024, driven largely by a more than 300% increase in boardings on Breeze Airways flights. Figures Beardsley shared in March showed boardings in January and February increased 47.6% and 32.8%, respectively, compared to January and February of 2024.
Total boardings in 2024 also increased considerably, by 30.9%, compared to 2023.
Last year’s addition of Breeze, the airport’s newest carrier, has contributed significantly to the ongoing trend. The first Breeze flight from AVP, the local airport’s Federal Aviation Administration codename, to Orlando, Florida, took off in late January 2024. Breeze followed up the Orlando service — which marked the return of direct local flights to Florida for the first time in about six years — by adding local service from AVP to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and two additional Florida services from AVP to Fort Myers and Tampa, respectively.
Beyond Breeze, figures Beardsley shared in January showed that boardings on existing carriers increased last year as well. On American Airlines and United Airlines flights from AVP they increased by 34.6% and by 36%, respectively, compared to 2023.
Apron project
Also Thursday, the airport board voted to award design and other elements of a planned pavement rehabilitation project to the Binghamton, New York-based firm McFarland-Johnson Inc., one of three that responded to a June request for qualifications seeking engineering, design, bid and construction-phase services.
Airport officials discussed that project in June, when U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp., announced a $241,300 federal grant to support the infrastructure-improvement initiative targeting more than 55,000 square yards of apron pavement at AVP. The apron area “supports the loading, unloading, refueling and maintenance of aircraft,” Bresnahan’s press release notes.
AVP Director of Engineering Steve Mykulyn said last month that the grant funding would support the design of the apron-rehabilitation project, noting the current apron pavement is nearly 20 years old. The funding was awarded through the Federal Aviation Administration’s Fiscal Year 2025 Airport Infrastructure Grant program
A project selection committee recommended McFarland-Johnson after reviewing responses to the June RFQ.