Passenger traffic at the four airports serving Los Angeles County was unusually weak in February, thanks in part to a quirk in the calendar.

Overall, 6.05 million passengers went through the gates at Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Hollywood Burbank and Long Beach airports in February, according to data from the agencies that run each of these airports. That was down more than 6% from February of last year.

Passenger counts were down sharply at two of the airports – LAX and Long Beach – while traffic was flat at Ontario. Only Hollywood Burbank eked out a slight gain, by nearly 2%.

A major factor was that calendar quirk: because February of last year was a leap year, it had 29 days for passengers to go through the airports, compared to the normal 28 days for the month. That alone would have led to an average 3.5% drop in passengers for February of this year compared to the same month last year.

The calendar issue ended up exacerbating drops in passengers at Long Beach and LAX, which posted declines of 14% and 7% respectively. It eliminated what would otherwise have been an increase in passengers at Ontario and reduced the increase at Hollywood Burbank to just 2%.

Long Beach, LAX passenger declines

Long Beach Airport has been in an especially weak position due to its almost exclusive reliance on Dallas-based carrier Southwest Airlines Co. Nearly 90% of flights at the airport involve Southwest planes.

As Southwest has trimmed routes and flight frequencies to deal with a shortage of planes and other financial pressures, Long Beach has suffered a disproportionate impact among the four airports serving the county.

That and the calendar quirk pushed the passenger total for Long Beach down 14% to 263,000.

Long Beach Airport officials in their comments on the numbers, downplayed the February statistics, choosing instead to focus on what they hope will be brighter travel days ahead this spring and summer.

“With spring break upon us and the busy summer travel season approaching, we anticipate an increase in travelers taking advantage of the convenience and relaxed atmosphere at Long Beach Airport,” said Juan Lopez-Rios, the airport’s deputy director.

At LAX, domestic passenger tallies have been languishing for more than a year due to Southwest’s travails and route cutbacks by other airlines. As at Long Beach, the calendar quirk exacerbated this.

On the international side, passenger growth has stalled in recent months and would have been flat again compared to February of last year had it not been for the calendar quirk pushing the figure into negative territory.

Meager passenger gain at Burbank, flat at Ontario

Hollywood Burbank Airport posted the only significant gain in passengers in February, up nearly 2% to 425,000. That reverses a drop of 6.4% in January.

Meanwhile, officials at Ontario International found themselves in an unfamiliar position in February as the overall passenger count was virtually flat. Until now, the airport had seen a nearly unbroken string of year-over-year passenger increases stretching back to 2021.

In their release of the February numbers, airport officials noted the impact of the shorter month this year, saying that growth would have been nearly 3.6% had the two February months been the same length.

“Even with a shorter month, we saw growth, an achievement that speaks to our resilience, strong demand, and the trust travelers and airlines place in us,” said Atif Elkadi, chief executive of the Ontario International Airport Authority.

Elkadi, too, looked ahead to what he expects will be a return to significant growth for the airport.

“With new service launching to Chicago and Baltimore/Washington as well as four international destinations in Mexico and Asia, ONT is not just keeping up; we are setting the stage for even greater success in 2025 and beyond,”
he said.

Cargo tonnage up at Ontario, but down at LAX

The air cargo picture at the two major cargo airports serving Los Angeles – LAX and Ontario – was mixed.

Cargo volume rose nearly 7% in February at Ontario compared to the same month last year, to just over 60,000 metric tons.

“Ontario prides itself on first rate cargo facilities and operational excellence which makes our Inland Empire airport a hub of choice for cargo shippers,” Elkadi said.

But Ontario’s increase was more than offset by the much larger percentage and tonnage plunge at LAX, which handled nearly 157,000 metric tons in February, a drop of more than 11% from the same month last year.