PASCO, WA-
In 2020, the Tri-Cities Airport saw less than half the amount of travelers than they had in 2019. This year though, things are beginning to improve, and part of that is thanks to leisure travel.
Buck Taft is the Airport Director at Tri-Cities Airport, and he says that leisure travel is popular this year.
“We’ve added three new leisure routes this year with Burbank, San Diego, and now Reno. They’re performing well,” said Taft.
Holiday travel is on the horizon, and Taft is hoping to see 10 percent off down off of 2019. Ideally, they’d want to see around 62,000 people pass through the airport during those holiday months.
“Things are trending in the right direction nationwide, so I’m hoping we’ll see really strong numbers this holiday season,” said Taft.
Buck says they wanted to create an airport people here would be proud of.
“We think we have a nice, easy facility with affordable parking and it gives people an option here locally to fly out,” said Taft.
When more people choose to travel with PSC, those dollars are going back into making the airport better.
“Every time a passenger flies out of here. That’s another data point that we take to the airlines and say, ‘look, these many people are flying out, this is where they’re going,'” said Taft. “We can create a case for new air service.”
“The more passengers fly out of here, the better options they’re going to have as far as parking, as far as restaurants, as far as routes,” said Taft.
