New Orleans Airport Traffic Increases

Annual passenger traffic at Louisiana's largest airport jumped nearly 21% in 2007 and reached about three-quarters of the number handled before Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, the airport reported Tuesday. Just over 7.5 million passengers either embarked or disembarked at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in 2007, an increase from about 6.1 million in 2006.

In 2004, the last full year before Katrina totally disrupted the airport, a record 9.7 million passengers passed through the airport. After the storm shut down most traffic for the last four months, the tally dropped to 7.8 million. A major challenge for the airport has been rebuilding the number of flights coming through New Orleans. By May, the airport, which had 132 daily flights in December, will have seven more flights.

That total will represent 86% of the pre-Katrina level, along with 80% of pre-storm number of seats, said airport spokeswoman Michelle Wilcut.

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This news probably has the contract thief, Stan "Pampy" Barre, counting his ill-gotten dollars.