Passenger traffic at the four airports serving Los Angeles County fell 3% in May compared to the same month last year, according to figures released by each of the airports’ governing authorities.

Long Beach and Los Angeles International saw significant declines in passenger traffic in May. Hollywood Burbank and Ontario International airports reported gains in passenger traffic.

Overall, nearly 8 million passengers went through the gates at the four airports in May, down 3.4% from the same month last year and down 10% from pre-pandemic May 2019.

The drop follows a 1% decline in April and a 4% slide during the first quarter compared to the same periods last year.

If it’s any consolation for the local airports, the commercial aviation industry nationwide has hit a rough patch. According to figures from the International Air Transport Association, passenger traffic decreased 1.7% in May from the same month last year. That follows three straight months of single-digit percentage declines.

According to the association, economic uncertainty and a reduction in government travel were factors in these drops in year-over-year passenger counts.

Long Beach hit hardest

Passenger traffic fell nearly 13% at Long Beach in May compared to the same month last year – by far the biggest percentage drop among the four airports and much worse than the national average. That follows a 9% drop in April and a 10% drop for the entire first quarter.

The municipal airport is now greatly tied to the fortunes of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co., which holds close to 90% of all flights at the airport. Southwest’s struggles over the last several months have included shortages of planes and customer dissatisfaction with the new policy of charging for checked baggage.

Officials at the airport, which is run by the city of Long Beach, declined to comment for this story.

LAX continues to lag

Los Angeles International Airport saw a drop of more than 4% in passengers in May to 6.45 million. The 5.1% drop in domestic passenger traffic was larger than the nearly 3% decline in international travelers. Domestic travel accounts for roughly two-thirds of the passengers, so the bigger drop there pulled the overall figure down further.

LAX also has the dubious distinction of
being the only one of the four airports serving the county not to recover to pre-pandemic passenger levels. In May, the total remained 15% below May of 2019, with the domestic tally 18% under.

Burbank and Ontario see gains

Hollywood Burbank Airport was the biggest gainer in passengers in April, up 7.5% over the same month last year. That follows a 6% increase in April over that same month a year ago.

Huge increases in passengers with Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, at 83% and 41% respectively, more than offset double-digit percentage drops in passengers with American Airlines, Avelo Airlines, Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways.

Meanwhile, at Ontario International, May’s passenger count was up for the 51st consecutive month, though at a relatively meager 2% to 630,000 passengers. That was better than the 0.4% gain in April, compared to the same month last year.

Ontario International Airport officials put out a forecast for 2.2 million passengers to pass through its gates during the summer travel season, which runs from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. That’s up slightly from the forecast for last summer of 2.1 million passengers.

Cargo tonnage down again

Air cargo tonnage at the four airports serving Los Angeles County fell 12% in May to 247,000 metric tons compared with the same month last year. That follows a 1% drop in April.

Roughly 98% of the cargo is handled at just two of the airports: LAX and Ontario International. And those two airports moved in completely different directions in May.

LAX, which handles the most cargo of any of the airports, reported a nearly 18% plunge in cargo tonnage in May. That drop may reflect the ongoing global trade war as the United States imposed sanctions on most of its trading partners and many of those countries retaliated.

But Ontario posted a 5% gain in air cargo tonnage handled in May compared with the same month last year. Air freight tonnage was down nearly 9%, but air mail tonnage shot up a whopping 324%, the second month of triple percentage gains.