Business News

Lafayette Regional Airport has best May ever

First five months of this year up 8.2 percent over same period last year.

A record-breaking May at Lafayette Regional airport — 46,120 passengers flying in and out compared with 44,846 in May a year ago, a 3 percent increase — helped bump the year-to-date activity increase to 8.2 percent. For the first five months of this year, passenger counts reached 206,156, versus 190,467 for the first five months of 2014.

Sample rendering of Lafayette Regional Airport's $90 million expansion

Load factors, the number of passengers flying on an airline compared to the number of seats available, continued to soar in May for all three carriers. Leading the way was Delta Connection/Atlanta with 86.7 percent of seats filled, followed with United Airlines/Houston/Denver with 86.5 percent and American Eagle/Dallas with 83.3 percent.

Lafayette Regional Airport offers multiple daily nonstop flights to Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and Houston.

The airport is planning a $90 million expansion, which includes additional parking and a new terminal, much of which will be funded by a temporary sales tax voters approved Dec. 6 to start in April and expire Nov. 30.