Allison Marsh was checking her bag at a United Airlines ticket counter this summer when she realized she had forgotten her phone. The flight was departing in an hour.
The South Carolina frequent flier didn’t panic. She darted home and made it back to Columbia Metropolitan Airport with time for coffee.
Marsh, a university professor, couldn’t have pulled that off when she lived in Baltimore and flew out of BWI and Washington Dulles. The tiny South Carolina airport’s easy parking, minimal TSA waits, short walks and employees who print her bag tags the second they see her coming have turned her into a loyalist. This while co-workers who loathe connections (flights at smaller airports often require a connecting flight on a regional jet unless your destination is a major airline hub) travel 90 miles to American’s hub in Charlotte, N.C.
“I do not deviate unless there’s extreme circumstances,” she says.
In a world of big-airport upmanship—business-class lounges, exotic new flights and VIP check in —small airports have a devoted fan base. And it’s one that has been growing as discount airlines including Allegiant, Breeze and Avelo have come to town.
Mia Petree, a tax-firm managing director, lives in Arlington, Va., and flies mostly out of Dulles and Washington National on business trips. Her favorite airport, though, is Charlottesville Albemarle Airport near Charlottesville, Va. It’s the closest airport to her family’s farm house, purchased during the pandemic.
The first time she landed there after a work trip, she asked someone to direct her to baggage claim. She was standing in front of it.
The planes are small, and you often board via air stairs outside. Petree can’t get enough of it.
“The parking is dirt cheap and it’s right outside the door,” she says. “It’s never a hassle.”
There’s even a winery five minutes away where Petree has waited out a delay with family members.
Some travelers can’t avoid small airports without a long drive. Jason Lacey, a corporate attorney in Wichita, Kan., used to drive more than three hours to and from Kansas City International Airport when his children were younger for the nonstop flights. They were often cheaper, too.
“When you get back from a trip, three hours to get home is kind of a drag,” he says. “That $100 a ticket you saved doesn’t feel quite as valuable anymore.”
Lacey, who has American Airlines’ top status, now flies almost exclusively out of Wichita. Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport bills itself as the largest airport in Kansas. It carried 1.39 million passengers in the first nine months of this year, compared with 8.56 million at KCI.
He doesn’t mind the mostly smaller planes and lack of lounges because he’s often connecting in a hub with lounges.
The airport is just 15 miles from his house and a breeze to navigate, he says. No shuttles or trains or long walks to your gate.
“You park the car, you walk through the door and you’re right there,” he says. “It’s very, very efficient.”
Real-estate investor Terry Stephens flies frequently between his home in Florida and West Virginia, where he spent most of his career. Allegiant turned him into a small-airport fan.
He flies nonstop out of Orlando Sanford International Airport to Hagerstown, Md., when he needs to get to northern West Virginia and North Central West Virginia Airport when he visits Clarksburg, W.Va. Until this year, Hagerstown offered free parking. Now it’s $5.
In addition to fewer lines and traffic, Stephens says customer service at all three airports is a big draw. In Clarksburg, a car-rental company that closes at 1 p.m. on Sundays arranged to have his car waiting for him when his flight landed later that afternoon.
He and his wife also go (relatively) small when they travel to Europe, flying out of Daytona Beach, Fla., instead of Orlando, with a connection in Atlanta.
He preaches the convenience of these airports every chance he gets, but people don’t always listen.
“Every once in a while one of the kids will fly into Orlando International Airport and we give them hell,” he said.
Write to Dawn Gilbertson at dawn.gilbertson@wsj.com
