Pittston Twp., Luzerne County, PA -
At a meeting where officials announced a record March for passenger travel, a volunteer was honored Thursday for his service to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.
Airport Executive Director Carl Beardsley announced that passenger activity was the highest ever for the month of March. Beardsley said the 25,431 passengers who flew out of the airport in March marked a 41.2 percent increase from the 18,012 last year.
In March 2018, departures dropped 14.4 percent from 2017, mainly because Allegiant Air pulled out two months earlier. Last month also broke the March 2017 record of 21,054 departures.
Airport officials attributed the sharp increase since last year to new flights to Chicago added by American Airlines and United Airlines.
After making the announcement, Beardsley took time to honor Edward Hanadel of Exeter, who is a volunteer with the airport's Ambassador program.
In presenting Hanadel with a plaque and a gift, Beardsley noted that since July 31, 2008, Hanadel has volunteered 5,030 hours. Beardsley noted that the Ambassador program has 26 volunteers who have clocked some 58,200 hours since the program's inception in 2006 when the new terminal opened.
Beardsley said the Ambassadors at the airport serve as regional goodwill emissaries by providing courteous, friendly assistance, and useful information to the passengers, visitors and guests. He said the Ambassadors are committed to the enhancement of customer service at the airport and provide high-level, courteous assistance to regional visitors.
“After I retired, I heard about the program and I decided I wanted to help,” Hanadel said. “I like the contact with people. I enjoy helping them get to where they need to be - baggage pick-up, boarding area, restaurants.”
Hanadel said he volunteers two days per week, about five hours each day.
Back to the numbers
In 2017, the airport marked its 70th anniversary, but also smashed an old record - nearly 532,000 passengers flew in and out of the airport that year, breaking the old record of 491,416 set in 1990.
In 2018 the facility came close to another record: AVP topped 500,000 passengers once again, putting the year second only to 2017.
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