Passenger traffic was down at all four local airports in August for the third straight month as higher fuel costs due to the war in the Persian Gulf have forced airlines to cut flights and raise fares.
Overall, 7.84 million travelers went through the gates at Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Hollywood Burbank and Long Beach airports in August, down 4.5% from the same month last year.
Hollywood Burbank Airport posted the biggest slide in passengers of 12.5%, followed by Ontario International’s 6.2% drop. Los Angeles International and Long Beach each recorded a decline of 3.7%.
Meanwhile, cargo tonnage at the four airports eked out a gain of 1.3% in August compared with the same month last year. That followed a 4.1% year-over-year increase in July.
Sharp drop at Burbank
The August total of 489,000 passengers at Hollywood Burbank Airport was a sharp drop of 12.5% from the same month last year. It also marked the fourth consecutive month of double-digit percentage plunges when compared with the same months last year.
The initial cause for these drops was the restructuring of two carriers that had a significant presence at the airport. In the run-up to its complete shutdown on May 2, Dania Beach, Florida-based Spirit Airlines Inc. had sold hundreds of planes and cut scores of routes across the country, including at Hollywood Burbank. And Houston-based Avelo Airlines Inc. announced last year it was closing its West Coast hub at Burbank, exiting the airport entirely.
The combination of these restructurings cost the airport tens of thousands of passengers each month.
Late last year and early this year, five airlines — Seattle-based Alaska Airlines, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co., Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air, Cottonwood, Utah-based Breeze Airways, and New York-based JetBlue Airways — announced a total of 11 added flight routes. Some of the additional flights have already begun, including Allegiant flights to Bellingham, Washington, and Provo, Utah, and seasonal Alaska Airlines service to Honolulu.
These added flights should have been enough to at least partially offset the loss of passengers from the exit of Spirit and Avelo airlines. But thanks to the turbulent overall environment this year for the aviation industry, the offsetting effect has yet to be seen.
Now hopes for an increase in passengers are pinned on the debut this coming week of the new $1.3 billion passenger terminal at the airport to replace the 96-year-old passenger terminal complex. The new terminal features many more tech amenities and a single consolidated baggage claim area that is now entirely inside.
Unfamiliar territory for Ontario
For Ontario International, the 6.2% slide in passengers in August compared with the same month last year is the biggest year-over-year drop since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. A year ago, the airport’s impressive streak of 54 consecutive months of year-over-year passenger growth came to an end; since then, the gains or declines in passengers have been quite small — until August.
In its release of the August passenger figures, the Ontario International Airport Authority attributed the drop to airlines reducing capacity due to higher fuel prices.
Both domestic and international passenger counts were down in August at Ontario. The drop in international passengers was the first in over a year and marked a sharp turnaround from the double-digit percentage growth rates posted earlier this year. Indeed, for the first eight months of this year, the total number of international passengers going through the gates at Ontario was up 31% from the same period last year.
Atif Elkadi, chief executive of the Ontario International Airport Authority, chose to focus on that one positive number in the passenger data.
“The tremendous growth we’re seeing in international travel is especially exciting,” he said.
LAX, Long Beach both down 3.7%
While both LAX and Long Beach saw nearly identical rates of decline in passengers in August, they came to that point from different directions. The 3.74% drop at LAX in August was the biggest of the year, particularly for domestic flights. That side of the market had stabilized earlier this year after more than a year of substantial drops as airlines focused their domestic growth at airports with major hubs, such as Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. But in August, the impact of higher fuel costs hit harder for domestic flights at LAX than it had in previous months.
For Long Beach Airport, on the other hand, the 3.73% drop in passengers in August compared with the same month last year represented an improvement. For much of this year, the year-over-year drops had been at or close to double-digit percentages.
At Long Beach, Southwest is by far the dominant player with more than 85% of total passengers and flights. The Dallas-based carrier cut routes across the country and has tried to recover from controversial moves it made last year to end its two free checked bags and open seating policies, two of the factors that had led to its loyal following.
But Southwest did add two routes from Long Beach to Portland and Seattle earlier this year. And Alaska Airlines returned to the airport this summer after a years-long absence with flights to Seattle. The relatively small size of passenger counts at the municipal airport means even the addition of a few flights can make a significant difference.
Air cargo gains continue
In August, just under 278,000 metric tons of air cargo were handled at the four airports serving the county, a 1.3% increase from the level for the same month last year. That rate of increase, though, was down from 4.1% in July and a first-half gain of nearly 6%.
LAX and Ontario International account for roughly 98% of the air cargo handled at the four airports. LAX posted a meager gain of 0.7% in August, while Ontario did somewhat better with an increase of 3.3%.
Ontario International has long been an air cargo hub due to its proximity to the massive warehouses in the Inland Empire.
“Our world-class facilities, strategic location and outstanding airport partners have made ONT a preferred gateway for moving goods quickly and efficiently,” airport authority chief Elkadi said. “The continued growth in freight volumes speaks to the strength of that partnership.”
