Nonstop Flights Boost Lakefront Airport Expansion Plans

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Southern Airways is bringing back nonstop flights between New Orleans' smaller airport and both Memphis, Tennessee, and Destin, Florida.

         Officials at Lakefront Airport hope this is a sign that business may be on the way back to levels before Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans CityBusiness’ Natalie Chandler reports.

         The U.S. Customs is building out a wing so international passengers can fly in on private and corporate jets. It's expected to open by October, said Lakefront's chief operating officer, Cornelia Ullmann.

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         "We're hopeful that with Customs coming in, we can get our flights up to over 200 per day" — pre-Katrina levels, she said. Ullmann said that would boost federal funding, "and you can have planes with 36 passengers. Then we can again accept basketball teams flying into the airport."

         Southern Airways says its routes will run from Memorial Day through Labor Day, with an eye toward eventual year-round expansion. They'll be on nine-seat Cessna Caravan 208s.

         The Memphis flights will be offered four days during the work week, and flights to Destin will be offered on Fridays and Sundays beginning May 22, said Keith Sisson, chief operating officer of Southern Airways.

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         The Destin route, first offered last summer, "got more and more popular as summer went on, and by the time we reached the end of Labor Day, we saw full aircraft," he said. "We think … that in our second year, we will see returned customers, we'll have some new customers come on and see the popularity expand."

         The airport on Lake Pontchartrain was flooded four feet deep. It has since rebuilt most of its historic Art Deco terminal 10 years later. New hangars are in place and a major crack-and-seal coat repair project has been completed.

         The airport currently sees between 175 and 200 flights during its busiest weekends, Ullmann said.

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         Lakefront still faces challenges to become what it used to be. Along with lighting issues, it needs federal help to build a $67 million floodwall to survive storms similar to Hurricane Isaac in 2012, which flooded the airfield.

         To help with those and other expansion efforts, Lakefront hired a new airport director, former Slidell Mayor Ben Morris, who led that city's Katrina recovery efforts.

         Morris, a retired Army Reserve colonel who has been working at the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, begins his new job May 11.

         For more information

 

 

 

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