Meridian Regional Airport sees booming summertime journey after small spring journey delays

MERIDIAN, Miss. (WTOK) – The canine days of summer season are right here, and summertime journey remains to be in full-swing.

People are getting out; by sea, by air, and by street; to get that one final journey earlier than college begins again in August.

Although earlier this yr, TSA funding was disrupted by a authorities shutdown, Key Field remained largely unfazed by the choke.

According to a survey completed by Upgraded Points, Meridian Regional Airport noticed a 1.3% drop in common TSA throughput between March and May of 2026.

Tom Williams with the Meridian Regional Airport Authority says Meridian noticed little or no drop as a result of their TSA brokers had been reliable and stored coming, even whereas the federal government remained closed.

“Meridian agents continued to come to work, continued to do their job, and there would have normally been absolutely no impact on passenger travel out of Meridian. They were here to screen passengers, did their job, unlike some larger airports where they just did not come to work because they needed to do something to earn a paycheck.”

Williams added that whereas there could have been a quick throttling of air journey again within the spring, there’s definitely no slowdown for the summer season.

“We’re having a busy summer, we’ve had a lot of travel through the summer, our passenger boardings are up, as you would expect. That’s up year-over-year, so our passenger boardings are up year over year through the summer, so it’s been a really good summer.”

Williams attributes the rise to individuals flying regionally, utilizing smaller airports for cheaper journey throughout the county.

“More and more people are coming to understand the convenience and really the cost effectiveness of a small airport. You park right by the front door, you pay two dollars a night for parking, you’re not in long lines, there’s every reason in the world to fly out of a small airport.”