Embraer ERJ-145s nonstop to the Continental Airlines hub in Cleveland. In later years Continental Express continued to serve the airport with nonstop regional jets to Cleveland while Continental Connection scheduled nonstop turboprops to Albany, NY; both services ended in 2005. Spirit Airlines scheduled flights to several Florida cities and Detroit, before moving to LaGuardia Airport in 2001; in May 2008 the airline resumed service to Fort Lauderdale from MacArthur, dropping it soon after. Delta Express, which had nonstops to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, dropped MacArthur Airport in 2003 after a decline in traffic. Delta Connection regional jet service to Atlanta flown by Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) on behalf of Delta Air Lines ended on May 1, 2008, following a mid-April announcement that Delta and Northwest Airlines were planning to merge – a move that led to changes for the merged airline. As of December 2022, Southwest is operated year-round, non-stop service to Baltimore, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa, Nashville, and West Palm Beach. Allegiant Air previously operated two weekly flights on a seasonal basis to Fort Myers/Punta Gorda, FL. using McDonnell Douglas MD-80s but no longer serves the airport. PenAir began operating two daily nonstop flights to Boston in July 2013, but stopped flying to MacArthur a year later. The last legacy carrier to serve Islip was American Airlines with Embraer ERJ-145 code share flights operated by its American Eagle Airlines regional affiliate Piedmont Airlines to Philadelphia. Service to Washington–National ended on July 2, 2014, after the merger between US Airways and American. The newly merged airline had to cut service to 17 cities from Washington–National because of an antitrust lawsuit preventing the airline from monopolizing slots at National Airport. American Airlines reapplied for nonstop service between MacArthur Airport and Washington–National when two slots opened up, but in early 2015 the airline lost the bid for these two slots. In September 2022, American Airlines ended service to Islip citing a regional pilot shortage as the main reason behind the cut. Frontier Airlines began serving MacArthur Airport in 2017, and Breeze Airways began service to and from the airport in 2022. Passenger boardings and operations Following the September 11, 2001 attacks MacArthur Airport saw a 25% decrease in passenger traffic. Passenger traffic later increased, but they decreased again in 2006. Charts depicting annual operations and passenger boardings are in Appendix C and D. In 2005 MacArthur Airport had 173,135 total operations; during