ASHEVILLE, N.C. — After a busy Fourth of July weekend with 6,000 daily travelers, the Asheville Regional Airport said it is on course to shatter its record for most travelers in a single year.
The record, which was set in 2019 with 1.6 million travelers, is currently set to fall in 2022, according to airport data.
That data shows 611,653 travelers used Asheville’s airport through May, which is an 8.5% increase over the same time period in 2019’s record year. Those figures do not include July, which is historically the airport’s busiest month, according to staff.
What You Need To Know
Asheville's airport usage set to break 2019's 1.6 million traveler record
Just recently, the airport added another airline and nonstop destination
Through May, Asheville's airport has seen more than 600,000 passengers
Tina Kinsey, the airport’s public relations director, said compared with a decade ago the change is breathtaking.
“Unlike anything I’ve ever seen. When I started here 12 years ago, I believe we had eight or nine nonstop destinations. We have 25 now. I believe that our annual passenger number was around 700,000. We’ve more than doubled that and potentially could triple that,” Kinsey said in the busy terminal.
And the airport continues to add carriers.
“The newest is JetBlue. They just started a few weeks ago. Nonstop service between here and Boston, so exciting. And then, one of our newest nonstop routes, American Airlines, has implemented nonstop service between here and Miami. That is daily,” Kinsey said.
The growth will continue later this year or early 2023 as the airport adds more parking and a major terminal expansion, growing the number of passenger gates from seven to 12.
A passenger waiting in line for Allegiant’s check-in desk said she had never seen lines like the one she was standing in, in her years of traveling through Asheville. She was headed to Florida a few days after the July 4 holiday.
Just eight minutes away from the airport, a local brewery said it also noticed the airport’s growth. Melody Lanning has lived in Asheville the last 20 years and owns Burning Blush Brewery in Mills River.
During the holiday, Lanning said they were packed the entire four-day weekend.
“It was from Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, it was like — Monday was probably one of our biggest days,” Lanning said, adding they had to turn over four tanks of beer, which were empty.
The brewery, which opened in the last month of 2019, survived COVID-19 by expanding its outdoor patio and is now benefiting from more travelers.
“Especially over the Fourth of July week, it was like people were coming in saying they were catching a flight out, they were catching a flight in. They came here to drink once they got off their plane,” Lanning recalled.
In the winter of 2019 and early months of 2020, her family’s decision to open the brewery soon turned into a potential nightmare.
“Scary. 'Cause we had just built the building, brewed a bunch of beer to open up in December, and then just shut down three months later,” Lanning said.
The shutdown did not deter Lanning or her son from making ends meet, and now she said they have rebounded and are doing well, fulfilling her son’s dream of running a successful brewery.
“Well for 10 years he has begged us to open a brewery, and we made him work for other breweries until we decided to open the brewery. From day one, 10 years ago, this was the name he wanted, Burning Blush,” Lanning said.
The brewery’s name, derived from an Edgar Allan Poe poem, is benefiting from the airport’s proximity and Asheville’s overall tourism rejuvenation.
“I feel like this is probably going to be the best year since COVID,” Lanning estimated.