Activity, flights taking off again at OKC's Will Rogers World Airport
Oklahoma City Airports Director Mark Kranenburg is careful when talking about the travel industry and the pandemic. After all, he has seen the best of times and the worst of times, all within a span of a month of each other. You can’t blame him for being cautiously optimistic on whether things are truly returning to pre-pandemic levels at Will Rogers World Airport.
“As I have walked around the building the last couple of weeks, it almost feels like we are almost back to normal. Gates are full, concession areas are full and baggage claim is full. But let’s not start doing cartwheels and handstands just yet. We are still in a pandemic,” he warned.
Related: Will Rogers World Airport prepares to open expansion
Big changes on the horizon for retail and concessions at Will Rogers World Airport
Will Rogers World Airport and concessionaire Paradies Lagardère are introducing new retail store and restaurant plans, offering both local and national icons.
Will Rogers World Airport and award-winning airport concessionaire Paradies Lagardère, with approval of the Oklahoma City Airport Trust, recently announced plans to redefine the traveler experience with an array of new retail stores and restaurants. The vision for this effort, originally unveiled through a competitive request for proposals, will deliver 17 new concepts that offer travelers iconic national brands and also established local favorites from the community.
Kranenburg has every right to be careful with his words. In January and February 2020, Will Rogers was seeing record numbers of passengers, even more than what had come through during the first two months of 2019. In fact, 2019 ended up as the best year ever at Will Rogers for the number of passengers flying in and out of the airport. But then in mid-March of last year, the bottom fell out as COVID-19 started its stranglehold on the world, delivering a devastating blow to the travel and hospitality industry, essentially shutting down airports across the U.S., including at Will Rogers.
“Airport activity went down to pretty much zero on the commercial side. In about a three-week time period in 2020, we went from a high of maybe 7,000 passengers going through the security checkpoint all the way to the lowest point of 239 passengers in April,” Kranenburg said.
Related: Big changes on the horizon for retail and concessions at Will Rogers World Airport
A key factor in the huge drop in passengers was the airlines’ decision to suspend or discontinue air service all around the country, he said. Throughout the rest of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, the number of passengers at Will Rogers was still significantly lower than the record numbers the airport enjoyed in 2019. Today, however, the things are finally looking up for the travel and hospitality industry as infections and hospitalizations are dramatically lower, more businesses are re-opening and more people are getting vaccinated, something Kranenburg calls a game changer.
Will Rogers World Airport prepares to open expansion
As officials at Will Rogers World Airport worked through an unprecedented pandemic-driven air travel situation at the same time they are implementing a significant terminal expansion, we recently reached out to Mark Kranenburg, Oklahoma City’s Director of Airports, to get some insight on what is next for the region’s largest airport.
“[The vaccine] really helped build some confidence in the system and I think our economy as well,” he said. An indication of this renewed confidence can be seen in last month’s passenger numbers at Will Rogers. More than 5,000 passengers passed through the TSA security checkpoint for several days in May, even reaching approximately 6,000 passengers on a couple of occasions, Kranenburg said. In addition, some of the surfaced parking lots that were closed during the pandemic are now beginning to reopen. These are all positive signs that things are indeed improving at the airport, so much so that several airlines are increasing the number of flights or bringing in larger aircraft to satisfy demand. Others are even introducing new nonstop flights.
Related: Will Rogers World Airport expansion includes locally-designed art features
The most recent carriers to announce new nonstop flights from Oklahoma City are Breeze Airways, which will begin nonstop service to Tampa beginning July 1, followed by nonstop service to New Orleans and San Antonio on July 15, and American Airlines, which will begin daily nonstop service to Austin on October 7.
American Airlines also recently announced that it will begin nonstop service from OKC to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport beginning Nov. 2. The new service was originally scheduled to begin in 2020 but was delayed because of the pandemic.
A version of this story originally appeared in the June 2021 edition of The Point.
SUBSCRIBE