FOR IMME­DI­ATE RELEASE

ECP RANKS AMONG TOP 4 US AIR­PORTS IN CAPAC­I­TY GROWTH

PANA­MA CITY BEACH, Fla. (May 6, 2021) – Despite the pan­dem­ic, North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ECP) ranks num­ber 4 on Sim­ple Flying’s list of air­ports in the US that have grown the most – with a capac­i­ty increase of 58.2%. ECP is among 192 US air­ports that have more capac­i­ty now than before the pan­dem­ic began.

1. Key West: +751,317; added seats ver­sus sum­mer 2019, up by 118.2%

2. Sara­so­ta: +1,385,100; +114.2%

3. Boze­man: +878,561; +77.4%

4. Pana­ma City: +576,393; +58.2%

5. Fort Myers: 3,032,756, + 57.8%

6. Des­tin Fort Wal­ton Beach: +783,317; +55.0%

7. Myr­tle Beach: +1,315,291; +53.0%

8. Col­orado Springs: +614,612; +49.6%

9. Pen­saco­la: +706,723; +41.3%

10. Fres­no: +451,417; +32.4%

11. Boise: +536,694; +17.9%

12. Salt Lake City: +1,963,338; +11.1%

13. Mia­mi: +2,851,748; +10.2%

14. Nashville: +995,057; +7.4%

15. Kahu­lui: +403,822; +7.2%

16. Phoenix: +1,163,061; +3.8%

17. Fort Laud­erdale: +895,159; +3.8%

18. Dal­las Fort Worth: +1,859,166; +3.5%

19. Char­lotte: +808,893; +2.3%

20. Den­ver: +943,408; +2.0%

While the total US capac­i­ty is still down by 128 mil­lion seats, ECP will add over 576,390 seats this sum­mer ver­sus the sum­mer of 2019. ECP is one of eight Flori­da air­ports in the top-20 list, with Flori­da as a whole up by a sig­nif­i­cant 11 mil­lion seats. 

“Even dur­ing a pan­dem­ic, the ded­i­ca­tion and dili­gence of our team, our Region­al part­ners in tourism and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, and our air­line part­ners helped to take ECP to even high­er lev­els of his­toric growth,” said Park­er W. McClel­lan Jr., A.A.E., Exec­u­tive Direc­tor at ECP. ​“Giv­en the pas­sen­ger num­bers we have been see­ing in our Ter­mi­nal, these num­bers aren’t surprising.”

ECP has seen a steady increase in pas­sen­ger trav­el, with more than 80 com­mer­cial flights on Sat­ur­days in March, a num­ber exceed­ing what the Air­port tra­di­tion­al­ly expe­ri­ences in its peak sea­son. In March, ECP saw its third-high­est trav­el month in the his­to­ry of the Air­port, with close to a total of 130,000 pas­sen­gers, a 12% increase over March 2019, before the pan­dem­ic began. 

ECP air­line part­ners, Amer­i­can Air­lines, Delta Air Lines, South­west Air­lines, and Unit­ed Air­lines, have increased flight activ­i­ty at ECP this sea­son, includ­ing capa­bil­i­ties and new enhanced sea­son­al routes with non­stop ser­vice between pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tions like Austin, Chica­go, Dal­las, DC, Den­ver, Philadel­phia, and St. Louis.

Air­port offi­cials say peak sea­son began ear­ly this year and they antic­i­pate a busy Summer.

“As our region con­tin­ues to grow increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar as a des­ti­na­tion, the Air­port gains oppor­tu­ni­ties to expand its flight capa­bil­i­ties for our pas­sen­gers. Our facil­i­ties and staff are ded­i­cat­ed to pro­vid­ing a pre­mier fly­ing expe­ri­ence and will con­tin­ue to adapt to the growth each year,” says McClellan.

###

About North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport 

North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ECP) offers some of the region’s low­est aver­age air­fares and is locat­ed less than 30 min­utes from Pana­ma City Beach, Pana­ma City and the beach­es of South Wal­ton. Today, with ser­vice from Amer­i­can Air­lines, Delta Air Lines, South­west Air­lines, and Unit­ed Air­lines, ECP pro­vides dai­ly and sea­son­al flights to world­wide des­ti­na­tions, includ­ing non­stop flights between ECP and Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS) Bal­ti­more (BWI), Char­lotte (CLT), Chica­go (MDW/ORD), Colum­bus (CMH), Dal­las (DAL/DFW), Den­ver (DEN), Hous­ton (HOU/IAH), Kansas City (MCI), Nashville (BNA), Philadel­phia (PHL) St. Louis (STL), Wash­ing­ton DC (DCA) and more. ECP pro­vides the North­west Flori­da Region with first-class facil­i­ties and was strate­gi­cal­ly devel­oped for major eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. ECP is the gate­way to vis­i­tors seek­ing North­west Florida’s famous beach­es. Vis­it ifly​beach​es​.com to learn more.