Passenger numbers at Wichita's airport were down for July over last year, but they don't tell the whole story.
This July, close to 153,000 passengers flew through Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. That was a dip from July of 2015, when the airport saw more than 158,000 passengers. It was the first monthly decline this year.
But Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell said at his weekly briefing that last summer’s passenger count was unusually high.
“I’m going to attribute that to the brand-new airport opening up. There was a bit of a fascination," he said. "I would surmise that that created a little bit of a bubble.”
Longwell says there is reason for optimism. There were fewer flights this July, but flight capacity was at 91 percent, the highest it has ever been. And Alaska airlines will offer daily nonstop service between Wichita and Seattle beginning in April.
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