Staffing issues and weather in other parts of the country led to delays and cancellations at DFW Airport over the holidays this year, but the airport's chief executive says DFW performed better than airports in other parts of the country.
Sean Donohue says 3.9% of flights at DFW were canceled over Christmas and New Year's. He says 7% of flights in Houston, 10% in Washington, and 12% in Chicago were canceled.
"The airlines were able to complete over 96% of their flights," he says. "Obviously we benefited from good weather. Kudos to all of our partners, all of our airline partners, and kudos to our team. A lot of planning went into it. The execution went well. Our federal partners, in terms of TSA, Customs and Border Protection, everyone came together, and I think we were able to do a very good job taking care of our customers."
Donohue says DFW ranked second for on-time flights with 83% of flights operating on time.
"Our thanks to the leadership team, all of our front-line employees, all of our business partners," he says.
The airport has been forecasting a 26.5% increase in passengers in 2022 and a return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023.
DFW is also planning for an increase in cargo traffic. John Ackerman, executive vice president of global strategy and development, says many supply chain issues have been caused by the reduction in passenger traffic. He says a lot of cargo is loaded onto passenger flights.
"There's still a lot of capacity that's just out of the market," he says. "That's driving very high rates. It's driving scarcity. It's driving delays and a lot of the supply chain issues we've been hearing about."
Ackerman says almost all international e-commerce now arrives in the United States through New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. He says adding more cargo capacity at DFW would help the region's economy.
"Cargo contributed more than half of the economic impact of the airport in our last economic impact study, so if we can keep this growing, it has tremendous benefits for the communities we serve," he says.
Ackerman says his team will have a plan later this year to present to the DFW Board of Directors to keep growing cargo capacity.
"If you look at our competitors, they are not standing still," he says. "Hundreds of millions of dollars are going into cargo facilities at our biggest competitors."
In the next two weeks, Ackerman says Silk Way West Airlines will begin service to DFW from Baku, Azerbaijan. The cargo carrier's only other destination in the United States now is Chicago.
"This is just another testament, this is an airline we've been talking to, even pre-COVID, that's been very interested in our market," he says.
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow NewsRadio 1080 KRLD