Each year the Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) continues to experience strong growth despite stiff competition among peer airports operating in the Southeast. Since 2012, airport usage has increased an average of 7.6%, serving an average of 2,000 passengers a day, inbound and outbound, with flights offered by multiple carriers including: Allegiant, Delta, US Airways and United.
Starting in May, Allegiant Air will offer flights from the AVL to the Washington D.C. area via the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI). According to Allegiant, one-way fares from AVL to BWI will be as low as $39. The seasonal flights will be offered May 19 through August 16 and will operate twice weekly. Other non-stop flights from the Asheville airport include Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, Fort Lauderdale, Newark, New York, Orlando, Palm Beach, Ft. Myers, and Clearwater.
In addition to offering a direct route to the DC area, the airport continues to work towards other major milestones set out in their master plan including a runway replacement project and the construction of a 240-space parking lot. The new parking lot opened in November 2015, in anticipation of holiday traffic, bringing the total number of passenger and visitor parking spaces to 1,720.
The runway redevelopment project, Project SOAR (Significant Opportunity for Aviation & the Region), is a 4-phase, $75 million program that will replace the current 50+ year old runway with a new runway equipped to meet existing FAA standards and service the airport well into the future. Since AVL is a single runway airport, a temporary runway had to be constructed. The temporary parallel runway/taxiway opened in December allowing for construction to begin on the primary runway. The new permanent runway is expected to be complete in 2017 and then the temporary runway will be converted to a permanent west-side taxiway.
