Port Columbus' April passenger figures continued to mirror the national trend of more people flying, with a nearly 4 percent increase for the month compared with April 2015. Meanwhile, cargo-focused Rickenbacker Airport reversed its recent year-over-year declines.

Port Columbus� April passenger figures continued to mirror the national trend of more people flying, with a nearly 4 percent increase for the month compared with April 2015. Meanwhile, cargo-focused Rickenbacker Airport reversed its recent year-over-year declines.

According to data from the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, Port Columbus served 581,286 passengers last month.

Southwest Airlines, the airport�s largest carrier, saw the biggest increase at 11.7 percent. Other airlines all were up modestly except for American Airlines, which saw a 5.5 percent drop.

For the year through April, passenger traffic is up 7.2 percent at Port Columbus, while the number of flights has increased by 5.2 percent.

Rickenbacker had seen several challenging months in comparison with 2015, when a West Coast port strike led a number of companies to ship goods via air. Cargo freight was up by 3.7 percent for the month. For the first four months of the year, cargo totals are down 17.4 percent compared with the same period last year.

Allegiant Air, Rickenbacker�s only regularly scheduled passenger carrier, saw a 27.4 percent jump in passengers as it added 30.4 percent more flights.

mrose@dispatch.com

@MarlaMRose