ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - Due to the increase in passengers flying in and out of the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport, it's getting harder for many to find available seats.
John Anstey, who travels out of Roanoke several times a week on business, doesn't wait until the last minute to book his flights.
"If we don't book early enough, there might not be capacity and we might have to go elsewhere," explained Anstey.
"With our passenger growth on an annual basis, over the last six months, growing about 8 percent a year, we're finding ourselves with a little bit of a straining capacity," said Brad Boettcher of the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport.
Boettcher said they are proactively working with their carriers to advocate for more capacity, "Whether it's new destinations, larger aircraft, or more flight frequencies."
He said expanding their capacity would benefit tourism, allowing larger groups to be able to fly in.
"Visit Virginia's Blue Ridge is really a strategic partner with the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport and certainly capacity issues are important to us as well," said Visit Virginia's Blue Ridge President Landon Howard.
Howard is pleased with the added flights and is confident the balance of supply and demand will continue to improve.
"The more connections we have, the more airlines they have flying into Roanoke and Blacksburg area, the more advantage it is to us in attracting even more business here," explained Howard.
Another reason why the airport is working rigorously to bring in more flights is to help keep the cost of air travel down.
"A flight on an average day is running around 81 to 82 percent. What that means is eight out of ten seats get filled," said Boettcher.
While he's pleased to have airlines including American, Delta, United and Aleggiant on board, Boettcher said the airport is continuously advocating to expand to other airlines.
"We are talking to other carriers on a regular basis, especially low fair carriers like Jet Blue or Southwest, we think would be a really good fit to the market here," says Boettcher.
The airport is hopeful that as passenger traffic continues to grow, it will have the seats available to accommodate passengers.