For the first time in recent memory, Southwest Airlines Co. has become the top carrier in Los Angeles County.
The Dallas-based airline served more passengers than any other airline last year at the four airports in the county. It achieved the milestone by dominating the regional airports instead of focusing on mammoth Los Angeles International Airport.
According to figures provided by the airport authorities, roughly 15.4 million passengers flew Southwest Airlines at LAX, Ontario International Airport, Hollywood-Burbank Airport and Long Beach Airport last year. That’s up 48% from the 10.4 million that flew Southwest in 2021 and vaulted Southwest past Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. and Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines Inc. into the top spot.
A Southwest Airlines spokesman noted that this milestone is in keeping with the airline’s position as the largest air carrier by passenger volume across all of California for the past two decades.
“We enjoy great relationships with all four of those airports in partnering to offer relevant air service for our customers traveling to and from the L.A. Basin,” the spokesman said.
Delta and American each had the vast majority of their flights and passengers at LAX – upwards of 90%. But only about 40% of Southwest’s passenger base was at LAX; the other 60% came from Ontario, Burbank and Long Beach. In fact, Southwest is the dominant carrier at the latter two airports, with 67% of all passengers at Burbank and 84% at Long Beach.
While Southwest has long been the largest carrier by passenger volume at Ontario and Burbank, the airline is a newcomer to Long Beach, replacing JetBlue as the dominant carrier there. JetBlue left Long Beach in 2020 after losing its bid to establish an international service there; virtually all of JetBlue’s flight slots have ended up with Southwest.
And Southwest isn’t done establishing its presence in Long Beach: the carrier announced last month it plans new or additional flights from Long Beach this year to several destinations: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Colorado Springs, Colorado; El Paso, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; and Orlando, Florida.
Flight meltdown
All of this progress for Southwest came despite the airline’s epic nationwide meltdown in late December after a series of winter storms left planes and crews out of position, triggering a cascade of flight cancellations. That meltdown impacted the December passenger counts at all four airports serving Los Angeles County, stalling the recovery to pre-pandemic levels.
In December, roughly 6.9 million passengers went through the gates at the four airports, up 8.5% from December 2021. But passenger traffic actually declined year-over-year at Burbank and Long Beach, where Southwest dominates; Burbank saw a 6% drop and Long Beach a 5% drop. That’s the first time since the pandemic lockdown that any of the airports has experienced a year-over-year drop in passengers and officials with the airports hope that experience is not repeated soon.
“Although passenger travel was unexpectedly impacted in December, we are on track for a stronger performance in the months ahead,” said Long Beach Airport Director Cynthia Guidry.
Despite this year-end turbulence, 2022 turned out to be a strong year of recovery towards pre-pandemic passenger levels.
Overall, 80.8 million passengers boarded or disembarked from planes at the four airports, up nearly 39% from 2021, though still down nearly 22% from the record 103 million in 2019.
For most of the year, Ontario and Burbank exceeded pre-pandemic passenger counts, while Long Beach edged closer.
“We experienced great demand for air travel through Ontario International in 2022 with passenger levels exceeding pre-pandemic levels for the entire calendar year,” said Atif Elkadi, chief executive of the Ontario International Airport Authority. “Our airline partners restored air services suspended because of the pandemic while adding new routes and increased flight frequencies to popular destinations, and passengers showed their preference for our hallmark customer-friendly experience.”
And while LAX was still 25% short of 2019 levels, that represented considerable improvement from 2021, when passenger traffic was off 45% from 2019.
“LAX continues to rebound to pre-pandemic numbers, posting a significant increase in passenger numbers in 2022 to 65.9 million passengers,” said Justin Erbacci, chief executive for Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX.
Cargo slippage
Cargo tonnage at the four airports serving Los Angeles County in 2022 fell short of 2021’s record levels as pandemic-induced surges began to subside.
Overall, 3.66 million metric tons of cargo were handled at the four airports in 2022, down nearly 7% from 2021. About three-fourths of that cargo went through LAX.
In 2021, LAX saw a surge in cargo tonnage as it became a hub for key supplies such as Covid vaccines. Also, because of huge logjams at the ports, shippers with urgent cargo were forced to use LAX.
But last year, the port congestion eased and demand for Covid vaccines dropped as the pandemic began to loosen its grip.
Nonetheless, the surge did spur airport officials to move ahead with plans to modernize and expand the capacity of the cargo facilities. Developer proposals for this expansion should arrive later this year.
Meanwhile, cargo tonnage at the other main portal, Ontario International Airport, fell less than 5% in 2022 compared to 2021. Ontario experienced its huge cargo surge in 2020 as consumers ordered record amounts of manufactured goods instead of spending money on services such as restaurants and hotels. Last year’s 852,000 metric tons represented a return to more normal tonnage amounts for the airport, which is at the center of the Inland Empire’s warehouse and logistics hub.
