Airport board acknowledges D.C. crash victims; AVP boardings up 30.9% last year
PITTSTON TWP. — The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport board opened its first meeting of the year by acknowledging the lives lost late Wednesday when a commercial jet flying from Kansas collided with an Army helicopter near the nation's capital — the first major commercial air crash in the United States since 2009.
It was a somber start to a session that otherwise featured an abundance of good news about the local airport, where boardings were up nearly 31% last year compared to 2023 and where boardings this past December set a record.
But before airport Director Carl Beardsley Jr. shared those figures, he and the board observed a moment of silence for the victims of the tragedy that played out shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday, when an American Airlines flight carrying 64 passengers and crew collided mid-air with an Army helicopter carrying three soldiers as the plane approached a runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. Both aircraft plummeted into the frigid waters of the Potomac River, where a recovery operation was ongoing Thursday.
No one is believed to have survived the crash.
'As we mourn all those who have been impacted by this terrible tragedy, I ask at this time for a moment of silence for those on board both aircraft, as well as their families and loved ones,' Beardsley said, addressing the airport board composed of officials from both Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.
United Airlines flights from the local airport to Washington Dulles International Airport outside Washington D.C. were proceeding as planned Thursday, Beardsley said.
Those and other flights by United, American Airlines and Breeze Airways, the airport's newest carrier, all contributed to impressive numbers airport officials enjoyed last year, when boardings at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International increased 30.9% compared to the year prior. Thursday also marked the one-year anniversary of the first Breeze flight from AVP, the local airport's Federal Aviation Administration codename, to Orlando, Florida.
Breeze later added local service from AVP to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and two additional Florida services from AVP to Fort Myers and Tampa, respectively. Those services didn't exist in 2023, making a year-to-year comparison impossible, but figures Beardsley shared Thursday did show 2024 boardings on American flights from AVP increasing by 34.6% compared to 2023 and boardings on United flights jumping by 36% compared to the prior year.
Boardings this past December, meanwhile, were 64.9% higher than December 2023. The 23,800 boardings marked the most for a December on record at AVP, surpassing a previous record set in December 2019, a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted air travel and virtually everything else.
As the board embarks on 2025, members voted Thursday to retain Lackawanna County Commissioner Matt McGloin as board chairman and Luzerne County Councilwoman Lee Ann McDermott as vice chairwoman for another year.
Shortly after those unanimous votes, McGloin asked Beardsley about the potential for growth at the airport in the future.
'We're always working on getting additional service here at the airport,' Beardsley said. 'Whenever we can bring in additional airline service, or more flights, we want to take advantage of that and we will continue to do so going forward.'
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