6 replies to this topic

[Allan]

Thursday, January 22, 2004
Flint's Bishop Airport hits record

Cheap fares, proximity to Oakland County increase traffic at Genesee airport by 31.4%

Detroit News staff
Fueled in part by Metro Detroit travelers, Flint’s Bishop International Airport saw a record 952,309 passengers in 2003 — a 31.4 percent increase in arrivals and departures from a year ago, officials said Wednesday.

Bishop airport also reported that a record 92,726 passengers fliers boarded commercial flights in December, up about 33 percent from last year, Airport Director Jim Rice said.

The Flint airport steadily has been gaining business because of its proximity to northern Oakland County and lower fares, in some cases, than Detroit Metro Airport.

“Throughout the year, cooperation between officials of Genesee and Oakland counties, as well as the city of Flint and Airport Authority members had gone a long way to help pave the trail for our continued growth,” said Pat Corfman, Bishop’s director of marketing and public relations.

The number of Oakland County residents flying out of Bishop International has increased over the past three years, even though travelers have to change planes because there are few direct flight destinations out of Flint, according to travel experts.

Flint’s airport is located along interstates 75 and 69 and is 10 miles north of Oakland County.

Bishop airport is the second-fastest growing airport in the nation and its growth is projected to continue through 2008, according to a recent study by Michael J. Boyd of The Boyd Group, a Colorado-based airport consultant.

To handle the expected growth, Bishop airport has started a $7 million expansion project to provide more ticket counter space, offices for three air carriers, more baggage-handling space and additional parking.

Right now, Flint’s airport has six commercial airlines: Northwest Airlines, its largest carrier, AirTran Airways, ATA Connection, Delta, Midwest Connection and Continental.

Travelers using Bishop International can fly to such places as Milwaukee, Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Orlando.

Detroit Metropolitan Airport is not expected to report its final 2003 passenger figures until mid-February. Metro’s passenger traffic was up 3 percent for the first three quarters of 2003 with 24.4 million passengers.



Airport thrives
Total arrivals and departures at Bishop International Airport:

2003 952,309
2002 718,707
2001 564,503
2000 594,279
1999 585,596
1998 487,622

[ClevelandNO!]

I remember reading the same article last year, which is a good thing.

The cleveland version of Flint, the Akron Airport is doing very well also, if you want to drive a few extra miles, you can get to any of the major airports significantly cheaper than if you went through hopkins.

[Allan]

Actually the Flint airport is only about a fifteen minute drive north from my house, as opposed to a 1-1/2 hour drive to Detroit metro, so whenever possible we fly out of Flint. Unfortuantely the fact that it's so close also means that virutally every plane flying in or out of the airport passes directly over my house, which can be very noisy, since they fly so low.

[turlough]

Yeah allan i know we have air force jets and privte planes flying over my house and it's nosiy and scray cuz one day they will crash. Hopefuly i'll be in SD when it happens

[Allan]

Future Engineer, on Jan 22 2004, 03:58 PM, said:

Yeah allan i know we have air force jets and privte planes flying over my house and it's nosiy and scray cuz one day they will crash. Hopefuly i'll be in SD when it happens

Hopefully if one does crash it will crash in a field somewhere.

Actually besides hearing planes every few minutes all day long, we also hear trains every 20-30 minutes. I live by a main rail line that heads to Detroit, and every time a train goes by the house shakes. It is something you get used to after a while though.

[turlough]

Future Architect, on Jan 22 2004, 04:02 PM, said:

Actually besides hearing planes every few minutes all day long, we also hear trains every 20-30 minutes.  I live by a main rail line that heads to Detroit, and every time a train goes by the house shakes.  It is something you get used to after a while though.

ok now before you say i'm trying to say we lived kinda in the same area. The land we own this borded on the south side by a train track which leads to Charleston so we get trains ever hour on the hour.

[Allan]

I forgot to mention that we also get noise from nearby I-75. LOL. I never noticed how noisy it was by my house until today when I was actually thinking about it!