October was a mixed bag at the four airports serving Los Angeles County as Ontario International and Hollywood-Burbank airport passenger counts climbed modestly compared to the same month last year, while Long Beach and Los Angeles International airports saw their counts decline slightly.
Overall, the four airports collectively posted a very slight gain of 0.5% in passengers in October compared to the same month last year, bringing the total to 8.05 million, according to the Business Journal’s monthly look at passenger and cargo volumes at the airports. That growth rate was down from a 1.5% increase in passengers recorded in September compared to the same month last year.
Long Beach, LAX see
passenger drops
Long Beach Airport posted the largest percentage drop in passengers in October, falling 0.8% to just over 340,000 passengers. But that drop follows several months of double-digit percentage gains; at this point, it’s difficult to tell whether it represents a one-month aberration or is the start of a period of slower passenger growth at the airport.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. is the dominant carrier at Long Beach with roughly 90% of total passengers. That airline has had its share of struggles nationwide this year as it has been hit hard by slowdowns in aircraft deliveries, among other issues.
LAX, on the other hand, has seen passenger counts stay flat or decline slightly for months now; airport officials there have pointed to Southwest’s difficulties as a factor.
What was different in October is that for the first time in more than two years, the international passenger tally was virtually flat, posting a mere 0.8% increase to 1.93 million. With the domestic passenger count down 1.3% in October from the same month in the prior year, the total passenger count showed a drop of 0.7% to 6.46 million.
Just a year ago, LAX posted a 27% gain in international passengers compared to Oct. 2022. Nearly each month since then, the rate of year-over-year growth has slowed until now it has dipped under 1%.
Domestic passenger traffic has been flat or declining this entire year; now, with the slowdown in international traffic, both engines of passenger growth have stalled out at LAX.
Over the summer, officials at Los Angeles World Airports formed a unit that is tasked with reversing these trends and getting passenger counts growing again. So far, though, whatever actions the unit has taken have done little to stem the ebbing tide.
While the holiday travel season could offer some hope, LAWA officials have somewhat downplayed their expectations – at least when compared with last year. In a pre-Thanksgiving holiday press release, airport officials projected 2.2 million passengers going through the terminal gates during the holiday period; that is less than the 2.5 million passengers airport officials projected in the same pre-holiday release last year.
Unlike last year, not all of the holiday travel rush will show up in the November numbers. That’s because the Sunday after Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest travel day of the entire year, falls on Dec. 1.
Burbank, Ontario airport
passenger counts are up
Hollywood-Burbank Airport posted the biggest gain in passengers in October compared to the same month last year, with the tally rising 8.8% to 600,000. That’s the highest growth rate since July, when year-over-year growth hit 20%.
Ontario International Airport was not far behind, posting a 6% increase in passengers in October to nearly 643,000. Airport officials noted that this was the highest October monthly total in the airport’s history and the 44th consecutive month of year-over-year increases in passenger counts.
“Our easy-in, easy-out experience and superior customer service continued to attract air travelers in higher numbers in October,” said Atif Elkadi, chief executive of the Ontario International Airport Authority. “The Inland Empire is a business hub for the region with a growing population base and the word is out that Ontario International Airport is the airport of choice in Southern California,” he added.
Ontario International also attracts a significant number of travelers from the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County.
Robust growth in cargo volumes
Cargo tonnage at the four airports serving Los Angeles County grew 9% in October compared with the same month last year, to 292,000 metric tons.
Roughly 98% of the tonnage comes from cargo handling operations at just two airports: LAX and Ontario, with the lion’s share of that coming from LAX.
Cargo operations at Ontario grew at a fast clip of 31% in October when compared to the same month last year.
Airport officials at that airport noted that October’s tonnage was nearly as high as during the pandemic-fueled surge in 2020, when homebound consumers were making huge volumes of goods purchases from their home computers.
At LAX, though, October’s growth in cargo tonnage handled was much more modest, gaining only 2% when compared with the same month last year.
