The four airports serving Los Angeles County saw continued growth in passengers served during the first half of this year, but Los Angeles International Airport continues to be a drag on the recovery to pre-pandemic travel levels, according to figures from the airports’ governing authorities.
Meanwhile, the air-cargo boom of the early phases of the pandemic fizzled during the first half of this year, leaving cargo tonnage handled at the same level as before the pandemic.
On the passenger side, for the first six months of this year, 43.2 million travelers passed through the gates at LAX, Ontario International, Hollywood Burbank and Long Beach airports, up nearly 15% from the same period last year but down 14% from the pre-pandemic period in 2019.
All four airports saw passenger growth for the first six months of this year compared with last year. LAX had the highest overall growth rate, with its 35.7 million passengers representing a 16% jump over last year. But looking more closely at the LAX figures, there was a stark difference between international passenger traffic, which soared 47%, and domestic traffic, which grew at a much more modest pace of 7%.
The growth in international traffic has been so strong that in June just over 2 million international passengers went through the gates at LAX, a threshold not crossed since January 2020, the last month of unimpeded air travel before the Covid-19 pandemic began to sweep across the globe.
Despite this progress, passenger traffic at LAX for the first six months of this year was still 17% below pre-pandemic 2019 levels as growth in domestic traffic slowed.
Last year, domestic airlines were caught flat-footed during a passenger surge and had to cancel thousands of flights nationwide due to a combination of bad weather and personnel shortages. This year, the airlines scaled back additions to their flight plans in the hopes of avoiding a repeat of the congestion and cancellations.
Long Beach Airport posted the next highest passenger growth rate during the first half of this year compared to last year at 14%. That growth has been spurred by Dallas, Texas-based Southwest Airlines Co., the dominant carrier at the airport. Southwest added flights for its existing slots as well as securing a new flight slot during the first half of the year.
To stay within limits imposed by a noise settlement with residential neighbors, the number of flights at Long Beach is strictly controlled through the awarding of flight slots to various airlines. Slots are generally reallocated among airlines; occasionally, a new slot is added as the proportion of quieter aircraft increases.
Nearly 320,000 passengers went through the gates at Long Beach Airport in June, up nearly 9% from June of last year and 4% from pre-pandemic June 2019.
Ontario International saw a 12% increase in passengers during the first six months of this year compared with last year, coming just short of 3 million. Unlike any of the other airports, Ontario last year blew by its pre-pandemic 2019 passenger counts and hasn’t looked back since. For the first six months of this year, traffic was up 15% over the same period in 2019.
International passenger traffic at the airport nearly doubled for the first half of this year compared with last year, though that growth came off a very small base of 90,000 last year.
Hollywood-Burbank Airport was the weakest growth performer during the first half of this year; its 2.8 million passenger count was up less than 3% from last year and was down 2% from the first half of pre-pandemic 2019.
Deflated cargo
During the first six months of this year, 1.54 million metric tons of air cargo was handled at the four airports, down nearly 18% from the same period last year, as the two-year boom from mid-2020 through the middle of last year ended. Indeed, that metric-ton figure was virtually identical to the 1.53 million total handled in pre-pandemic first-half 2019.
“Our cargo volume is leveling off at numbers similar to 2019, after we saw tremendous, temporary growth during the pandemic due to airlines repurposing passenger planes for cargo, challenges with seaports and the transport of (personal protective equipment) products,” said Erbacci, the Los Angeles World Airports chief executive.
Nonetheless, the agency is moving ahead with plans to modernize and expand its cargo facilities; last month the airport selected a contractor team to develop detailed plans for the overhaul.
