A handful of passengers assemble at a ticket counter Wednesday, typically the busiest travel days of the year.  Nationally, air travel was below normal yesterday.

STEWART AIRPORT – What a difference one year and one less airline make.

Last Thanksgiving, Stewart Airport was bursting at the seams with long lines of holiday travelers and overflowing parking lots. In fact, the Port Authority rushed to build a new remote lot to accommodate all of the travelers.

Well, now with one less major airline – AirTran – reducing the number available seats by about 40 percent, the remote lot is roped off, the main parking lot in front of the terminal is about half empty, and the terminal has significantly less people in it.  AirTran, which had been flying at near-capacity, pulled out of Stewart in September.

Bonnie Wright of Warwick dropped her father-in-law off for a flight to Philadelphia. While she is a fan of Stewart, she is disappointed with the lack of meaningful service.

“I think it’s a travesty. I’ve watched over the years the declining numbers at Stewart and could never understand why that situation couldn’t be made more positive, particularly for the residents who live around here as well as people coming to the metropolitan area,” she said.

The Port Authority estimated 5,000 people will use Stewart this holiday weekend, compared to hundreds of thousands at its Big Three metropolitan airports.

But, despite the significant decline in passengers and loss of airlines at Stewart, the Port Authority has not given up. In fact, it has redoubled its efforts, having hired a consulting company to help it market and attract new airlines and it continues to plan ahead with airport infrastructure upgrades.

At present, JetBlue operates with full sized jets to Florida destinations while Northwest, Delta and US Airways all operate with 50-seat regional jets, Northwest to Detroit, Delta to Atlanta and US Airways to Philadelphia. Travelers can connect from those cities to anywhere else the airlines service.