Traffic drop continues at San Jose airport
Passenger traffic continues to decline at Mineta San Jose International Airport, but the decreases are growing smaller.
In November, traffic was down 4.2 percent compared to November 2008, according to the weekly report from Debra Figone, San Jose city manager. During the summer months, monthly passenger decline percentages were consistently in the low double digits.
"The smaller decline reflects the retention of passengers on SJC's other flights and resulting higher load factors despite fewer flights, and it could be an indicator that business and leisure travel are in the early stages of recovery," Figone said in her report.
The airport, owned and operated by the city, has suffered passenger declines and a growing number of canceled flights for more than two years, as have many airports nationwide. Dating back to September 2007, Mineta San Jose has seen its daily flight volume drop from 190 to about 150. Passenger volume dropped from 10.7 million in 2007 to 9.7 million in 2008.
There has been some good news in recent weeks. On Dec. 15, JetBlue Airways announced it will restore daily nonstop service between San Jose and Boston, starting May 13. Connecting two of the nation¹s high-tech capitals, the San Jose-to-Boston
JetBlue flight will be another version of the so-called "nerd bird" flights, which is what frequent fliers call the twice-daily Alaska Airlines flights that connect Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas. Alaska resumed those flights in late summer, after American Airlines dropped its San Jose-to-Austin service earlier this year low interest personal loan.
The new JetBlue flight beginning in May will depart San Jose at 9 p.m. daily, arriving in Boston at 5:30 a.m. local time. The Boston-to-San Jose flight will depart Boston at 4:25 p.m. local time, arriving in San Jose at 8:02 p.m. JetBlue had nonstop San Jose-Boston flights beginning in 2004, but began routing the connection through New York in 2008.
Last month, Horizon Air/Alaska Airlines announced it will launch twice-daily direct service from Spokane, Wash. to Sacramento and San Jose starting March 26. One daily flight from Spokane will operate nonstop to Sacramento and continue on to San Jose, while a second flight will operate nonstop to San Jose and continue on to Sacramento. The new service also includes a second daily roundtrip between San Jose and Sacramento, facilitating same-day business trips in each direction between Silicon Valley and the state capitol.
Horizon Air started a seasonal daily flight connecting San Jose and the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area this week, running through March, to accommodate skiers heading to the huge eastern Sierra Nevada resort.
David Vossbrink, the airport's communications manager, has told the Business Journal that airport officials hope the facility's major renovation and expansion will be instrumental in helping attract new flights and carriers. The $1.3 billion Terminal Area Improvement Program, scheduled for completion in June, is highlighted by the 380,000-square-foot, $342 million Terminal B Concourse, parts of which have already opened.