Arrivals, departures up at metro airports

February was a little more up in the air for local airports, and that's a good thing.

Arrivals and departures were up 7.5 percent compared to the same month a year ago at Long Island MacArthur Airport, Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, according to Federal Aviation Administration statistics. Despite the growth, flights are still down from where they were two years ago.

Air traffic at MacArthur in Islip increased by 6.5 percent with 8,884 arrivals and departures compared to 8,342 a year earlier.

"It's obviously a good sign," said Phil Nolan, town supervisor of Islip, which owns the airport. "The question is, Is it an upward trend or just a blip?"

Nolan said the positive numbers were driven by the improving economy, and the town would be watching how traffic continues in the face of higher fuel costs.

The increased traffic didn't translate into more people checking into Long Island hotels, according to the Long Island Convention & Visitors Bureau and Sports Commission, which reported an essentially flat year-over-year occupancy in February at 54.4 percent.

Annual air traffic at MacArthur has declined in each of the past five years, to 152,233 flights in 2010 from 189,390 in 2006, according to FAA statistics.

LaGuardia saw the largest increase with 27,465 incoming and outgoing flights last month compared to 24,600 in February 2010, an 11.6 percent increase. Kennedy saw the least year-over-year growth, up 4.1 percent.

"The strengthening economy is one of the indicators for passenger and cargo growth," Port Authority spokeswoman Jennifer Friedberg said in an e-mail. The Port Authority operates LaGuardia and Kennedy.

More flights came in and out of LaGuardia last year than in 2009, but Kennedy continued on a downward trend in 2010.

Some 48.7 million visitors made New York City their destination last year, an increase of 3.1 million people, according to estimates from New York & Co., the city's official tourism and marketing organization.

Nationally both passenger traffic and cargo traffic increased last year, said Standard & Poor's transportation analyst Joseph Pezzimenti.

"There is a recovery that started, but obviously traffic levels are still lower than they were before going into the recession," he said. "Air travel is either starting to recover or at least has stabilized in a lot of markets."

For the global airline industry, 2010 was its first profitable year since 2007, posting a $16-billion net profit compared to a $9.9-billion loss in 2009, according to the International Air Transport Association.