Southwest Airlines Pulling Out of Akron-Canton Airport

AKRON, OH - In another blow to the Akron-Canton Airport, Southwest Airlines will leave the airport in June 2017. The carrier is stopping its Akron-Canton to Atlanta route on June 2 and will then cease all service from the airport.

Executives at the airport have said that community support for Southwest was strong, with flights averaging an 84 percent occupancy. However, the airline appears to have a broader strategy at work in Ohio. Southwest is also pulling out of the Dayton airport and transferring all of that airport's flights to Cincinnati.

This announcement comes on the heels of Allegiant Airlines also pulling out of Akron-Canton. Allegiant will transfer all of their flights to Cleveland Hopkins, effective Feb. 15, 2017.

Akron-Canton saw its number of passengers rise by five percent in November versus the same month in 2015. However, that was after a 12 percent drop in October, when 113,736 passengers passed through the airport. That's down from 129,278 in 2015.

In fact, November was only the second month of 2016 which saw a rise in the number of passengers using the airport versus the year previous. With Southwest and Allegiant both pulling services out of the airport in 2017, Akron-Canton could be in for steeper declines in its passenger population.

Akron-Canton's President and Chief Executive Officer Rick McQueen told Ohio.com that "This has been a heck of a year. We’ve had some highs and some lows as we’ve gone through it."

Photo from Southwest Airlines