Eugene Airport sees growth since pandemic, adds new routes while some are discontinued

The Eugene Airport has had a noticeable increase in business since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing in more travelers who might otherwise go to Portland for a flight, according to director Cathryn Stephens.

In August, the airport had around 32% more passengers in 2022 compared to 2021, Stephens said. For October, the airport is set to have 4% more overall seats for flights than in 2021, and 66% more than in 2020, she said.

Those increases are due both to adding various new routes in the last two years and airlines bringing in larger planes because the airport is gaining customers.

Stephens said it has been encouraging to get more people flying locally.

“We’re finally moving the needle on that,” she said. “With each of those things, more air service means more people have connections locally, so then they feel like they can utilize their local airport instead of all those individual cars driving up to Portland International.”

The airport has announced new routes over the past two years, including Southwest starting a nonstop flight in February to Hollywood Burbank Airport, and to San Diego starting in March. The airport has also added several airlines recently, including Southwest and Avelo.

At the same time, several routes have been canceled. Aha! airlines, which was offering nonstop flights to Reno-Tahoe International Airport, went bankrupt, and ended all routes in August. In September, United Airlines informed Eugene it would no longer be offering nonstop flights to Los Angeles International or summer flights to Chicago.

The airline's reasons to discontinue the Chicago route included the timing — it was a red eye flight — and high fuel costs, Stephens said.

The Los Angeles route, which started in March 2019, will be suspended starting in January, Stephens said. The airline cited the nationwide pilot shortage and a delay on deliveries for new narrow-body United aircrafts used for the route in their decision to discontinue it, Stephens said.

Stephens said she hopes they can eventually get a nonstop flight back to Chicago.

The airport has also had some growing pains, including parking. The airport is working to complete a 350-spot parking lot expansion to accommodate the growing number of passengers. The expansion is nearing completion, Stephens said.

The closed parking area for the construction also required some creative solutions to find spots for employees and customers.

“Over the summer, for anybody who had a secure badge, we were all going through the fence and parking in the hangar area, and then we turned the employee lot into another long-term lot,” Stephens said.

Even with the expansion Stephens said she thinks the airport might need more parking spots, and said they are considering expanding its economy lot. She said her goal is to keep the airport convenient and easy to access despite the increase in passengers.

Contact reporter Louis Krauss at lkrauss@registerguard.com, call 541-521-2498 or follow on Twitter @louiskraussnews.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Eugene Airport sees growth since pandemic, adds new routes