Passenger traffic at the four airports serving Los Angeles County grew in January – with one major exception: domestic travelers into and out of Los Angeles International Airport.

Meanwhile, the year-long decline in cargo tonnage at the airports appeared to stabilize in January, though whether that was a blip or the start of a trend remains to be seen.

Roughly 6.87 million total passengers went through the gates at LAX, Ontario International, Hollywood-Burbank and Long Beach airports in January, up nearly 5% from the same month last year. But that was still 12% below pre-pandemic January 2019’s total – a larger shortfall than in previous months as LAX lost ground in January compared with four years earlier.

At LAX, the passenger tally picture continues to be a tale of two different trajectories. International travel once again posted a double-digit percentage increase, up nearly 19% from January of last year to 1.87 million. But domestic travel fell more than 2% in January compared with last year, to less than 3.8 million.

Throughout last year, the rate of year-over-year domestic travel growth shriveled, eventually falling to a growth rate in the low single-digits. 

The main culprit was airlines reducing the number of flights after 2022’s disastrous meltdowns, when thousands of flights were cancelled due to staffing shortages.

Domestic travel drops in January 

But in January, the rate of year-over-year domestic travel growth went negative for the first time since the early months of the pandemic in 2020. And because domestic flights make up the majority of travel at LAX, that dragged down the airport’s overall performance.

Officials with Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX, offered a different explanation for January’s drop in domestic passengers: troubles with the Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft triggered by January’s inflight blowout of a fuselage panel on an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland to Ontario International Airport. 

That incident and subsequent grounding of all of the 737-9 MAX aircraft resulted in 800 flight cancellations at LAX in January, impacting about 100,000 passengers, according to the statement from Los Angeles World Airports. For flights involving LAX, the 737-9 MAX aircraft is used almost exclusively for domestic air travel.

Looking ahead, the statement said, “As we move toward spring break season, we expect that traffic will begin to increase in the middle of this month (March), with passenger numbers continuing to grow into the summer.”

The statement also noted that Frontier Airlines will resume service at LAX beginning next month, adding several flights to destinations including Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver. 

The bright spot at LAX remains international travel, which continues to rebound after the pandemic as international air carriers have been adding flights back to their schedules. The January figures extended the trend that’s continued for nearly two years now of double-digit, year-over-year growth in international passenger counts.

A statement from Los Angeles World Airports noted that one drag on international travel has been strict limits on the number of flights to and from China; that number has stayed at roughly 25% of pre-Covid levels due to bilateral government restrictions.

While LAX continues to be held back by the sluggishness in domestic travel, the three regional airports continued to show robust growth in January, both compared to the same month last year and pre-pandemic January 2019. 

These three airports – Ontario International, Hollywood Burbank and Long Beach – posted a cumulative year-over-year passenger growth rate of nearly 10% in January, led by 13% growth at Long Beach. 

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. has been adding back flights at Long Beach since it gained the overwhelming majority of flight slots at the strictly limited airport. 

This is in keeping with the air carrier’s previously announced strategy of being the “go-to” airline at the area’s regional airports.

Ontario International Airport posted the next-highest passenger growth rate of almost 10% year-over-year in January, to a count of nearly 470,000 passengers. 

Ontario airport was the first of the four airports to recover from the impacts of the pandemic; January’s passenger count was nearly 19% above the same month in pre-pandemic 2019.

Air cargo: a ray of hope?

Meanwhile, on the air cargo front, tonnage handled was essentially flat at the four airports serving Los Angeles County – really LAX and Ontario, which handle 98% of the air cargo volume at the four airports.

LAX saw in January a nearly 3% increase in air cargo tonnage to nearly 184,000 metric tons, compared with the same month last year. 

But that growth was cancelled out by a nearly 6% drop in air cargo tonnage at Ontario to 59,000 metric tons.