The recovery at local airports from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic continued last year, though at a slower pace.

More than 91 million passengers went through the gates at the four airports serving Los Angeles County last year, up nearly 13% from 2022 but still nearly 12% short of the record 103 million passengers in pre-pandemic 2019. The growth rate was down substantially from the 39% passenger growth between 2021 and 2022.

But these topline figures belied a widening split in the fortunes of local airports. The three outlying regional airports – Ontario International, Hollywood Burbank and Long Beach – have all recovered from the pandemic, with Ontario zooming 15% past pre-pandemic levels.

But behemoth Los Angeles International Airport, despite posting a 14% gain last year from 2022, is still 15% short of its pre-pandemic mark, due mostly to a slowing rebound in domestic passenger traffic.

As a result, the four-airport system has had the weakest recovery to date among peer metro airport systems in Atlanta, Chicago and New York.

Meanwhile, Dallas, Texas-based Southwest Airlines Co. maintained its position atop carriers serving the region’s airports, thanks to increases in flights out of Long Beach and LAX. 

Southwest carried a total of 16.7 million passengers last year into and out of the four airports, up more than 8% from 2022. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. was next at 15.9 million.

Ontario takeoff

Ontario was the first of the four local airports to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels in mid-2022. Last year, the airport’s growth accelerated past that mark; its total of 6.4 million passengers was the highest since the 7.2 million posted in 2007, before the Great Recession and years of limited marketing under the Los Angeles World Airports regime took their toll.

“The year-end numbers demonstrate why (Ontario) is California’s favorite airport among airline passengers,” Alan Wapner, president of the Ontario International Airport Authority Board of Commissioners, said in the authority’s year-end wrap. 

“Since the transfer of the airport to local ownership in 2016, we have been laser-focused on developing an aviation gateway that appeals to Inland Empire residents and Southern California visitors, drives the regional economy and serves as a hub for commerce,” added Wapner, who is also a councilmember with the city of Ontario.

Long Beach Airport was the fastest grower last year among the four regional airports, posting a 15% gain to 3.7 million passengers. It’s also the airport where Southwest added the most passengers year over year (more than 1 million).

The two developments were intertwined. Southwest took over most of the flight slots at the flight-capped airport after New York air carrier JetBlue Airways departed in 2020 for LAX following its failure to secure federal customs facilities for the international markets it wished to pursue. While Southwest won the flight slots in 2021 and 2022, it took the carrier more than a year to fill most of those slots with actual flights. Now Southwest completely dominates the airport, carrying nearly 90% of all passengers last year.

Hollywood-Burbank Airport had a choppy performance last year, posting the smallest gain among the four airports – 2.3% – to 6 million passengers. Nonetheless, the Burbank airport’s 2023 passenger total squeaked by the 6 million mark for the first time ever, reaching 6.03 million. For many months, the airport posted year-over-year drops in passengers, led by decreases at Southwest, Delta and Houston startup Avelo Airlines Inc.

LAX split trajectory

Meanwhile, at LAX, as the year progressed, the difference in the pace of recovery between international flights and domestic flights became ever more apparent.

International passenger traffic continued to recover rapidly, consistently posting double-digit year-over-year percentage gains. As of December, the nearly 2 million international passengers was less than 8% short of pre-pandemic 2019.

“Overall, we saw good recovery and growth in international traffic, even with service to China being at 30% of pre-pandemic levels,” said Lauren Alba, director of executive communications for Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX. 

But domestic passenger travel was another matter; growth slowed to about 4% in December and overall for the year was only 7%. Because domestic passengers still account for more than two-thirds of the total at LAX, these anemic growth totals have pushed full passenger tally recovery at LAX further off into the future.

Airport executives have offered several explanations for the slow growth in domestic passengers at LAX. After a series of flight cancellations in 2022 due to an overstretched air carrier system nationwide, airlines dropped many flights from their schedules last year. Alba also pointed to construction impacts at LAX that limited the number of gates available for some airlines, especially at terminals predominantly focused on domestic flights.

Whatever the case, as of December, domestic passenger counts at LAX still lagged 19% behind pre-pandemic levels.

Cargo back to 2019

Cargo tonnage at the four airports serving Los Angeles County had another dismal year, falling 14% to 3.17 million metric tons, almost exactly matching the tonnage posted in pre-pandemic 2019. Cargo levels at the four airports peaked at 3.93 million metric tons in 2021 and have fallen nearly 20% since then.

In announcing its December and full-year 2023 cargo tonnage numbers, Ontario airport executives pointed to a global slowdown in air cargo. They cited a report in trade publication FreightWaves stating that most experts think it will take until at least the second half of this year before a recovery begins.

Of course, air cargo levels were pumped artificially high during the pandemic. First, there were emergency shipments of pandemic-related protective gear and vaccines. 

Then, due to supply chain problems and congestion at the local ports, shippers turned to air cargo in late 2021 to get their products to market on time.  

Now, the cargo mix has returned to more traditional staples.

“Cell phones and related equipment, and computers and related equipment (were) among the top imports,” Los Angeles World Airports’ Alba said. “Civilian aircraft and related parts (were) among the top exports.”