SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – Passenger traffic at the Burlington International Airport dropped for the third month in a row in June, officials said – a problem affecting other area airports.

At the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, traffic is down 7 percent for the year. Airport Director Kevin Dillon said airlines have reduced flights and switched to smaller aircraft as a way to save money.

“When you lose those seats, that starts to manifest itself in drops in passenger traffic simply because you don’t have the seats,” Dillon said.

Burlington International Airport Director Brian Searles said weather, construction and now high fuel prices have conspired to reduce traffic compared with a year ago for all but two months of this year.

“I’ve got to believe it’s the same pressures that are affecting other airports. Ticket prices (are) up. Discretionary spending is down. It’s all related to fuel prices,” Searles said.

June saw a 3 percent decrease in the number of travelers boarding flights in June, down to 56,325 compared to 58,033 for June 2005. In 2005 airport traffic grew by 9 percent. In 2004 growth was 15 percent.

In Maine, the Portland International Jetport was running close to where it was last year despite a reduction of 500 to 600 in the number of available airline seats each day, said Jeff Schultes, airport manager.

JetBlue arrived in Portland in late May, so it has not yet made a big impact in terms of passenger growth, Schultes said.

In Burlington, Searles said that unusually foggy weather in February grounded a number of flights. In April and May, meant planes had to reduce the number of passengers they carried to meet weight restrictions for take off and landing.

The number of passengers is important to the airport because each ticket includes a $4.50 charge that goes to the airport.

Stephen Martin, a vice president at Airports Council International, said high fuel prices were forcing airlines to economize.

“In general, you can’t get away from the jet fuel price problem,” Martin said.

Searles said he was looking for ways to increase marketing for the airport.

“The so-called JetBlue effect at this airport is behind us,” Searles said of the discount carrier that arrived in 2000 and boosted passenger traffic in Burlington. “We couldn’t realistically expect to grow at double-digit rates forever.”

AP-ES-07-15-06 1350EDT