Struggles
Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport is slightly smaller than might be expected for a city and metro area of its size due in part to its proximity to New Orleans' Armstrong International Airport. Despite aggressive advertising campaigns encouraging catchment area residents to utilize the airport, passenger numbers are somewhat low (below 800,000 passengers per year).
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and the ensuing increase in Baton Rouge's (temporary and permanent) population, BTR saw its destination portfolio expanded dramatically. New services were initiated to Cincinnati, New York City (both Newark, New Jersey and LaGuardia airports), Chicago-O'Hare, Denver, Washington-Reagan, St. Louis, and Orlando. The new destinations were discontinued by the end of 2008 as New Orleans air service returned to pre-Katrina levels. After experiencing record fuel prices in 2008 and the subsequent recession, the carriers returned their focus to the most efficient hub options for BTR, resulting in the current service schedule of daily jet flights to five major hubs. Vision Airlines also briefly served Baton Rouge with Boeing 737 jetliner service nonstop to Las Vegas (LAS) and Fort Walton Beach/Destin, FL (VPS); however, these flights were suspended and Vision then withdrew all service from the airport.
Read more about this topic: Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport
Famous quotes containing the word struggles:
“Mankind has grown strong in eternal struggles and it will only perish through eternal peace.”
—Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
“Between repetition and forgetting, it is a marvel that a new thought ever struggles into existence.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Religion, Society, and Nature—these are the three struggles of man.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)