Airport manager: Contour Airlines considering adding flights, destinations

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Airlines have come and gone through the Middle Georgia Regional Airport, but Contour Airlines shows a promising future for staying, as well as providing more destinations to travel to.

Airport manager, Erick D’Leon says the convenience of flights for many people is what contributes to the high number of flights being booked.

“We did see as expected, at the end of the holidays, January numbers dipped down a little bit, which is normal for the trends of passengers with everybody going back to work, but we have seen those numbers jump back up again,” said D’Leon.

When the airline first started in August, 46% of the flights were full. Percentages leaped in December to 72%, then dipped back down to 46% in January. February showed signs of it increasing again at 56%.

D’Leon says the number of bookings are looking good in March and for the summer.

Based on the bookings, the percentage looks like 67% of the flights were full for March and April is already booked over 50%.

Since flights are doing so well, D’Leon says the airport and airline are already talking about adding more travel destinations from the Middle Georgia Regional Airport.

“Those are conversations I have with Matt (Chaifetz, Contour Airlines CEO) pretty regularly as far as what options are out there. So we have started to look at those and look at our market study and brain storming so ideas,” said D’Leon. “So hopefully we will have some news on that.”

Contour Airlines has also tweaked the schedule for flights starting April 1st. Instead of having two flights on Wednesday, there will only be one flight. The jet will depart at 8:30 a.m. and land at Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) at 10:15 a.m.

The second flight will be moved to Sundays because of popular demand. Sunday morning, the jet will leave Macon at 9:30 a.m. and arrive at BWI at 11:15 a.m. Departure from BWI at 11:45 a.m. and land in Macon at 1:40 p.m. Then leaves Macon again on Sunday at 2:45 p.m., lands at BWI at 4:30 p.m.. Then comes back to Macon for the last flight on Sunday at 6:55 p.m.

“Contour Airlines has advised us that those bookings for those changed flights are looking very good for their three month outlook,” said D’Leon.