Passenger traffic at the four airports serving Los Angeles County continued to rebound toward pre-pandemic levels in November, led in large part by major gains in international traffic.

Roughly 7.56 million total passengers went through the gates at Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Hollywood-Burbank and Long Beach airports in November, up more than 9% from the same month in 2022 and only 6% below pre-pandemic Nov. 2019’s total.

International passenger traffic at the two airports set up for it – LAX and Ontario – was up substantially year over year: 22% at LAX to nearly 1.9 million in November and a whopping 99% at Ontario to 40,000.

Ontario’s international bonanza

The rebound in international traffic at LAX has drawn much attention over the past year, but months of robust gains in international passenger counts at Ontario not so much, partly because the gains have been off such a small base of under 20,000 passengers a month.

Nonetheless, the international passenger traffic gains at Ontario were dramatic over much of last year, and it’s almost all due to China Airlines, the main air carrier based in Taiwan. For the first 11 months of last year, passenger counts from China Airlines at Ontario shot up 633% to nearly 168,000, an increase of about 145,000 passengers. That numeric increase is by far the largest year-over-year jump of any airline at the airport, dwarfing the 73,000 gain in passengers at Southwest Airlines Co., long the dominant carrier there.

In fact, this huge jump now means international passenger traffic is for the first time in a generation a significant enough factor at Ontario for the United States Customs and Border Protection agency to open a new global entry enrollment center at the airport. The center, which opened late last month, allows for expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in this country.

“We are thrilled that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has selected Ontario to serve as the site of its newest global entry enrollment center and look forward to helping residents across Southern California access this time-saving international travel amenity,” said Alan Wapner, president of the Ontario International Airport Authority Board of Commissioners.

Long Beach gains

Long Beach’s municipal airport was the biggest year-over-year percentage gainer in passenger traffic in November, shooting up more than 17% to 338,000. That gain pushed the airport nearly 10% past its Nov. 2019 pre-pandemic level.

Over the past year, Southwest Airlines has emerged as the truly dominant carrier at the airport, handling nearly 90% of all passengers. Since locking up the vast majority of flight slots at the tightly controlled airport a year ago, Southwest has been gradually adding flights. By November, it had roughly 310,000 passengers, up 25% from the same month a year earlier.

Just over 6.1 million passengers went through the gates at LAX in November, up more than 9% from the same month in 2022 and now only about 9% short of pre-pandemic Nov. 2019.

One significant change in the flights at LAX in November compared to the period before the pandemic has been the load factor – how full each plane is.

“We had higher load factors at 86.7% versus 83.8% in 2019,” said Beatrice Hsu, interim chief executive at LAX. (The incoming full-time chief executive, John Ackerman, starts on Feb. 5.)

Looking ahead, Hsu said airport officials expect international traffic to surpass pre-pandemic peak levels sometime this year, while domestic travel should experience slow, steady growth.

Hollywood-Burbank Airport, which has lost some ground in passenger counts in recent months, posted a slight year-over-year increase of 4% to more than 542,000.

Cargo slump drags on

The total cargo tonnage at the four airports serving Los Angeles County has been headed almost exclusively in one direction over the past year: down. November was no exception, particularly at LAX and Ontario, which together handle about 98% of the total cargo tonnage.

LAX handled just under 200,000 metric tons of cargo in November, down 8% from the same month in 2022 and down 22% from Nov. 2021, which was during the pandemic-induced surge in cargo tonnage. In fact, November’s cargo tonnage matched almost exactly pre-pandemic Nov. 2019.

Ontario handled 68,000 metric tons of cargo in November, down 9% from the same month the previous year and down 10% from Nov. 2021.