WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Air travel is rebounding to near pre-pandemic levels at the Watertown International Airport.
American Airlines’ 2021 year-end report showed a rise of 75 percent in total passengers for the airport over 2020.
Jefferson County administrator Bob Hagemann presented the numbers at a general services committee meeting Tuesday.
Just shy of 42,000 people used the airport last year.
In the three years before the pandemic, the airport averaged around 47,000 passengers a year.
“With the final report, we are very much in the ballpark that we have been prior to COVID,” Hagemann said, “so very encouraging.”
“What drives that airport is its use,” District 8 legislator James Nabywaniec said. “When it’s being used through a lot of Fort Drum people using it, it’s just good for the overall economic benefit of the community.”
Airline travel was up across the board last year, though far fewer people traveled in 2021 than they did pre-COVID.
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