Cedar Rapids/Iowa City – The Eastern Iowa Airport (CID) passenger totals for the first two months of 2019 are 2 percent higher than the same time last year.
January was a record month for CID, with 91,789 total passengers. That is 3.4 percent more than the previous record set in January 2017, when 88,804 passengers chose to fly CID.
February just missed breaking the record by 581 passengers. Total passengers – those flying into and out of Cedar Rapids – in February 2019 were 89,355.
Marty Lenss, CID airport director, says passenger numbers are especially strong, considering the weather the region experienced during that time period forced some airline cancellations.
“Weather conditions during January and February were extremely difficult,” he says. “We had several snow and ice events that kept our airport crews busy maintaining safe runways and taxiways, and the airlines had to work in the extreme conditions to ensure flights could operate.”
For the time period of March – May, capacity (number of seats in the market) is up 2 percent and the number of flights offered out of CID is up 1 percent.
May 17 will see the inaugural flight of Allegiant’s new seasonal nonstop service to Nashville International Airport. The twice-weekly flight is offered on Fridays and Mondays. Tickets are on sale now through mid-August at allegiant.com.
Lenss says tickets sales have been strong. “We knew this flight would be popular in the region. It’s a relatively short nonstop flight that gets you to Nashville in time for a full weekend of fun, or you can stay the week.”
This is the second seasonal flight Allegiant offers during the summer at CID. Allegiant has provided nonstop service to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) for past five summers. The first LAX flight is June 5, with the last flight of the season scheduled for Aug. 10. Tickets are on sale now.
In other air service enhancements, United Airlines has included a third nonstop flight to Denver for its summer schedule. The flight will be on a regional jet and departs CID at 11:30 a.m. This will complement the airlines two regularly scheduled Denver flights on its Airbus 319. Those flights depart CID at 6 a.m. and 2:55 p.m. Tickets are on sale at united.com
