Passenger traffic at the four airports serving Los Angeles County fell 4% during the first quarter of 2025, marking their worst performance since the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data released by the airport governing authorities.
A total of 20.1 million passengers went through the gates at Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Hollywood Burbank and Long Beach airports from January through March. That tally was down 4.2% from the same three months last year and down 14.5% from the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.
Continuing difficulties at domestic air carriers, particularly Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co., along with increasing threats of tariffs and a global trade war fed into the passenger declines. The dismal performance spread to air cargo as the 730,000 metric tons of cargo handled at the four airports was down 3% from the same quarter last year. This drop came despite a surge in cargo at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in advance of the expected tariffs.
LAX, Long Beach airports turn in poorest performances
LAX saw the biggest hemorrhaging of passengers during the first quarter as 802,000 fewer passengers went through the gates than the same period last year for a drop of 4.7%. Domestic passenger traffic fell by 6%, while international passenger counts declined by nearly 2%.
These numbers mark a continuing acceleration of the downturn in passengers at the region’s biggest airport over the past year and have put off into the indefinite future any hope of recovering to pre-pandemic passenger levels. In fact, the airport is moving backwards in its attempt to make up the ground lost to the pandemic: a year ago, the airport was about 10% short of pre-pandemic 2019 passenger counts; now, it’s nearly 20% short.
To give a sense of the magnitude of the drop, consider this: in pre-pandemic 2019, LAX ranked third in Montreal-based Airport Council International’s annual rankings of the world’s 10 busiest airports with 88 million passengers; the airport trailed only Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International and Beijing’s Capital International.
In the council’s latest ranking based on last year’s data that was released last month, LAX’s tally of 76.6 million passengers didn’t even make the Top 10.
Last summer, under the direction of new Chief Executive John Ackerman, Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX, set up a unit to promote air travel to the airport. But since then, the passenger declines have only accelerated.
While LAX has suffered the biggest numeric declines in passengers, Long Beach Airport takes the dubious crown of the biggest percentage drop. During the first quarter, roughly 865,000 passengers went through the gates at Long Beach, down exactly 10% from the same period last year.
Unlike LAX, there’s a single culprit for Long Beach Airport’s troubles: Southwest Airlines, which dominates the airport with nearly 90% of all flights. The airline has struggled with a shortage of planes and increased competition from budget carriers.
Long Beach Airport Director Cynthia Guidry tried to put these numbers in a longer-term perspective.
“The passenger numbers for March are slightly down compared to our record-breaking year in 2024, but still very strong when compared to the past few years,” Guidry said.
Minuscule gains at Hollywood Burbank and Ontario
While Hollywood Burbank and Ontario International airports did post gains in passengers during the first quarter, those increases were incremental: 0.57% at Ontario and 0.45% at Hollywood Burbank.
For Ontario, this is unfamiliar territory since the pandemic. The Inland Empire airport was the first to recover from the pandemic and continued to turn in strong increases in passengers through last year, pushing the airport to 27% above pre-pandemic 2019’s level.
But the growth engine largely sputtered during the first quarter. Southwest is the airport’s largest carrier, with roughly 39% passenger share in March, so that air carrier’s problems had some impact at the airport.
Hollywood Burbank Airport, meanwhile, ended the quarter strong, with a 5% gain in passengers in March over the same month last year. That was the largest percentage gain among the four airports for that month.
Cargo volume at airports
While cargo tonnages at the four airports serving L.A. County were down 3% during the first quarter, the performance was mixed at the two airports that together handle 98% of all the air cargo – LAX and Ontario International.
Cargo tonnage at LAX fell nearly 7% during the first quarter to 528,000 metric tons compared to the same period last year, while cargo tonnage shot up 8% at Ontario to 191,000 metric tons.
