At the four airports serving Los Angeles County, it’s a tale of two worlds: passenger counts have been trending up – though at different rates – while cargo tonnage handled has been plunging.

In May, a combined 7.83 million passengers went through the gates at Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Hollywood Burbank and Long Beach airports, up 9% from last year and edging ever closer to the pre-pandemic peak reached in 2019, according to figures from the airports’ governing authorities.

But cargo tonnage handled at these four airports fell 19% in May from a year ago to 253,000 metric tons and is now running 7% below pre-pandemic May 2019, the largest percentage shortfall since mid-2020. Cargo tonnage fell at each of the four airports in May, both compared to a year ago and to May 2019.

On the passenger side, Ontario International continued its impressive performance: the nearly 557,000 passengers going through the gates at the Inland Empire airport in May was up 7% from a year earlier and 17% from May 2019. It also represented the highest-single month total since before the Great Recession.

“May was a new high-water mark for passenger travel through Ontario in a single month since the airport’s transfer to local ownership in 2016,” Atif Elkadi, chief executive of the Ontario International Airport Authority, said in announcing the May numbers. “Ontario continues to set an example in the aviation industry as an airport that has not only recovered from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, but is setting record highs in passenger volume.”

That surge in passenger counts pushed the airport back into the No. 2 position among the four airports in terms of total monthly passengers, past the Burbank airport. The latter facility actually posted a 3% year-over-year drop in passengers to 519,000, a rare occurrence since the recovery from the pandemic began in earnest two years ago. But Burbank’s May total is still nearly 3% above pre-pandemic May 2019.

LAX: Gains, but not enough

LAX, long the region’s 800-pound gorilla when it comes to passenger traffic, was actually the biggest year-over-year percentage gainer: its 6.45 million passengers tally for May was up 10% from last year and marked the second consecutive month over 6 million.

That gain was driven mostly by a nearly 33% increase in passengers on international flights, according to Justin Erbacci, chief executive of Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX.

But the domestic passenger tally only rose a little more than 3% in May compared to last year. And that has translated into very slow progress for the airport at it attempts to recover to pre-pandemic passenger counts; the airport still remains 15% below May 2019. 

Meanwhile, Long Beach Airport posted a 9% year-over-year gain to nearly 309,000 passengers in May, nudging that small municipal airport 1% above pre-pandemic May 2019.

Cargo plunge

The cargo picture at the four airports was considerably gloomier in May. While all four airports saw significant drops in cargo tonnage handled in May, both compared to last year and pre-pandemic 2019, most of the attention is focused on LAX and Ontario, which together handle more than 98% of the cargo at the four airfields.

Crews at LAX handled 189,000 metric tons of cargo in May, down 22% from the same month last year and 5% from pre-pandemic 2019. 

Ontario handled 61,000 metric tons of cargo in May, down 8% from the same month last year and 10% from May 2019.

At both of these airports, the spikes in cargo tonnage handled that came during the height of the pandemic are now fading into memory.

Ontario’s main cargo surge came in 2020 and early 2021 as consumers stuck at home turned to online orders of products; that airport is close to the huge warehouses in the Inland Empire. 

LAX’s surge came in late 2021 as the airport became a receiving point for personal protective equipment and then vaccines. The airport also handled more cargo diverted from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which at that time faced huge delays.

Now, though, cargo tonnage is down across the board, and not just at the airports. Both the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have also seen tremendous drops in cargo over the past year as shippers have diverted increasing percentages of their cargo to ports in other parts of the nation.