Projo Biz Blog

T.F. Green Airport posted its year-end passenger traffic numbers this morning and, as projected, they showed the airport had its slowest year in a decade, dipping below 5 million passengers for the first time 1998.

In December, 339,319 passengers used the airport, down 4 percent from the same month a year earlier, when 354,641 passengers went through Green. For the year, the passenger count hit 4,692,974, down 7 percent from 2007's 5,019,342 passengers.

In a statement, Green officials said the decline is similar to what other airports faced in a year of a weakening economy and high-priced jet fuel.

"While other airports across the country have seen double digit losses, we feel somewhat fortunate to have experienced a less severe drop in activity," said Kevin A. Dillon, president of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, the state agency that operates Green and several smaller state airports.

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