Passenger traffic at three of the four airports serving Los Angeles County continued to soar in March, with Long Beach Airport hitting an all-time record high for passengers during the month.

Meanwhile, at Los Angeles International Airport, growth in domestic passengers has all but vanished, slowing the recovery to pre-pandemic levels.

Collectively, Ontario International, Hollywood-Burbank and Long Beach airports saw 1.42 million passengers in March, up exactly 20% from March of 2019.

Long Beach Airport saw about 362,000 of those passengers in March, up 22% over March of last year.

The monthly record, according to airport officials, was for enplaned (boarding) passengers, 178,836 to be exact. That represents the highest total since the airport’s founding 100 years ago this year.

According to the airport’s announcement, the main factor behind the surge was the increased use of the airport’s 58 flight slots. Southwest Airlines acquired 10 additional flight slots last year, for a total of 50, and gradually began increasing its schedule. Also, recently completed modernization efforts at the airport, including a new ticketing lobby, have made the airport more appealing to passengers, the announcement said.

“We are thrilled to see continued growth in passenger traffic at Long Beach Airport,” said Airport Director Cynthia Guidry. “The diversification of our route network, coupled with ongoing improvements in infrastructure and services has positioned LGB as a preferred choice for travelers.”

At Ontario International, the March passenger tally of 557,000 was up 11% from the same month last year. The growth in international passenger traffic was 66%, though the total of 41,000 passengers is miniscule compared to LAX.

“We continued to fly high in March with double-digit passenger growth year-over-year as more travelers chose Ontario International and our world class services and amenities,” said Atif Elkadi, chief executive of the Ontario International Airport Authority. “The ongoing run of strong passenger increases, as well as new air service offerings recently announced by our airline partners, bodes well for the spring and summer.”

Hollywood-Burbank Airport’s year-over-year passenger growth was much more modest, coming in at 2.2% for a total of 505,000.

Meanwhile, the travel picture at LAX continues to be a tale of two worlds. International passenger traffic soared once again in March, rising more than 16% year-over-year to 1.96 million. It was just 4% below the pre-pandemic tally of March 2019; if the growth curve in international travel continues at the same pace, full recovery from the pandemic should be reached by June.

But domestic travel in March was another story; that tally grew just 0.5% to 4.3 million from the same month last year. That meager growth rate actually meant a backsliding when compared to pre-pandemic levels: the 4.3 million figure was 19% below March 2019. In previous months, the number of domestic passengers had been averaging about 15% below 2019 levels.

The trend was even more pronounced when looking at the first quarter totals. For the first three months, 11.7 million domestic passengers went through the gates at LAX, an increase of just 0.2% from the same period last year.

That total reflects a negative growth turn in January due to hundreds of flight cancellations of Boeing 737 MAX planes in the wake of the door frame blowout that took place on an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland to Ontario International.

Another factor has been flight network planning decisions made by airlines operating at LAX, according to Doug Webster, interim chief operations and maintenance officer with Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX.

The question going forward is whether this stagnation of domestic passenger counts represents a new, lower level or is just a blip on the radar with growth resuming in the months ahead.

Webster had previously said that airport officials expect overall passenger growth for the months of April and May to reach 4.3%, which represents an increase of about 575,000 passengers. But that projection did not distinguish between domestic and international passengers. 

Cargo decline continues

Both March and the first quarter saw continued drops in cargo tonnage figures at LAX and Ontario airports, which together handle more than 98% of the air cargo from all four of the airports serving the county.

Cargo tonnage in March fell about 5% at LAX and Ontario compared to the same month last year. For the quarter, the tonnage was down about 3% compared to last year.

When compared to pre-pandemic 2019, cargo tonnage in March was virtually flat. But it was up nearly 3% for the first quarter compared to the same period in 2019.

These numbers indicate that after a huge pandemic-era surge in air cargo tonnage at the airports that peaked in 2021, the tonnage figures have dropped back to pre-pandemic levels.