money Northwest Florida Beaches Airport in Bay records second busiest year ever in 2022
PANAMA CITY BEACH − Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport recorded its second busiest year in 2022.
Airport Authority officials last week released passenger numbers for December and said the airport saw more traffic than any other year on record except 2021, which experienced a dramatic uptick in traffic created in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Servicing multiple Panhandle counties, the regional airport sits north of Panama City Beach in unincorporated Bay County.
"The opportunities that we have for the future are probably the biggest take-aways from last year," said Parker McClellan, executive director of ECP. "We saw what 2021 did. We've seen what 2022 did, and we're excited what 2023 and the future will look like."
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According to the airport's December activity report, it serviced 88,863 passengers in the December, bringing the total number of passengers for 2022 to more than 1.52 million. This is only about 77,700 less than 2021. It also is about 245,000 more than in 2019 − the airport's busiest year before 2021 took the title.
With high hopes for 2023, McClellan said the airport is gearing up to break ground on three massive construction projects that will help it accommodate growth:
A $3.5 million project will pave an overflow lot and add additional parking spaces
A more than $8 million project will expand the baggage area.
A $3.2 million project will build out the terminal.
McClellan said he expects the overflow project to break ground within the next couple of weeks and be complete by about June. The baggage area and terminal projects are slated to begin in about a month, and both will take about a year to complete.
Southern Sky Aviation, an aircraft maintenance company out of Alabama, also has invested more than $25 million to build a second fixed-based operator on about 11 acres at ECP. FBOs are terminals for small private and corporate airplanes. Construction for this project is underway, and McClellan said he expected the FBO to open in early 2024.
"There's a lot of things that are happening at the airport," McClellan said. "I'm very optimistic about where the airport, and where the region, is going."
Looking ahead, he noted the airport still is working to determine an accurate baseline to track future growth, but it will use 2019 numbers in the meantime. Once it logs 2023's passengers, officials will be able to better track future growth patterns.
McClellan said he is confident 2023 will be another booming year at ECP. He expects for its numbers to be comparable to those of 2022.
"I'll continue with my mantra that the Panhandle and the beaches of Northwest Florida have been discovered," he said. "I think (2023) is going to look very similar to (2022), hopefully with a slight increase because we do have a very unique product, and that's white-sand beaches with southern hospitality."
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: 2022 was the second busiest year for Northwest Florida Beaches Airport
