Air travel at local airports rose 4% in February from January as the omicron coronavirus surge ebbed and the Super Bowl drew more visitors to the region.
The four commercial airports serving Los Angeles County — Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Hollywood Burbank and Long Beach — had just over 5 million passengers go through their gates in February, up 4.4% from January, though still down nearly 22% from December’s pandemic era peak.

February’s passenger count was more than 2.5 times the Feb. 2021 total of just under 1.9 million. Comparing with pre-pandemic travel, the February passenger total was down about 29% from February 2019.
In a dose of unexpected good news, Hollywood Burbank Airport for the first time exceeded its pre-pandemic passenger count, though just barely; its 372,000 passenger total in February was 1% above February 2019.

Burbank Airport had previously fallen short of pre-pandemic levels by double-digit percentages each month. But last year, startup Avelo Airlines made Burbank its West Coast hub, serving a dozen destinations not otherwise reached out of Burbank. All those added flights are finally being reflected in the passenger totals.

Ontario Airport wasn’t far behind, with its 358,000 February passenger count falling just 1.5% short of pre-pandemic February 2019. This continues a trend in recent months of that airport edging ever closer to recovering to pre-pandemic levels.

“Ontario International continues to set the pace for pandemic recovery among medium and large hub airports in California,” Alan Wapner, president of the Ontario International Airport Authority Board of Commissioners, said in the announcement of the February statistics.

All of this good news was tempered by the continued slow rebound at LAX, which dominates the regional air travel market. The February total of nearly 4.1 million passengers was off 33% from pre-pandemic February 2019’s count. International travel remained particularly hard hit; it’s still down more than 50% from pre-pandemic levels.

But in February, the trend line at LAX was up, and that was eagerly welcomed by officials with Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX. February’s passenger count was up 3% from January, despite three less days in the month. And preliminary March passenger boarding figures from the federal Transportation Security Administration were encouraging: 2.4 million boarding passengers compared with nearly 1.9 million in February and nearly 1.4 million in March 2019.

“A boost from the Super Bowl and a greater demand for travel as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to an increase in the number of guests using LAX in February,” Justin Erbacci, LAWA’s chief executive, said in the announcement of February statistics. “We anticipate continued improvement in our passenger numbers in March, based on data from the (TSA) and we are looking forward to very busy spring and summer travel seasons.”

But both Erbacci and Ontario’s Wapner has some cautious notes about March and April travel expectations.
They both cited rising jet fuel costs triggered by the Ukraine crisis, with Erbacci noting that some airlines have pared back their summer schedules because of the higher fuel costs.

Wapner said the Ukraine crisis itself has increased uncertainty for both airlines and potential passengers alike.
Meanwhile, at Long Beach Airport, the February passenger count of nearly 203,000 showed a nearly 4-fold jump from February of last year; the airport is now down about 19% from pre-pandemic passenger levels. Long Beach got hit with a double whammy as the pandemic struck: its once dominant airline, JetBlue Airways, pulled out completely from the airport in late 2020, transferring those flights to nearby LAX. Southwest Airlines picked up most of JetBlue’s flight slots, but has only gradually been filling those slots with actual flights.

Cargo solid

About 282,000 metric tons of air cargo flowed through the four airports in February, unchanged from February 2021 but up 30% from pre-pandemic Feb. 2019.
Cargo tonnage fell 9% from January, but that was largely due to February having three fewer days for cargo flights to operate.

Looking at the year-over-year tonnage numbers, Ontario was the only airport to register a decline: nearly 8% between February 2021 and this past February. Ontario benefitted during the early phases of the pandemic as consumers switched to ordering goods online instead of spending them on local entertainment and dining venues. The airport had been a huge beneficiary of this switch-up because of its proximity to the nation’s warehouse capital in the Inland Empire.

But in recent months, as local dining and entertainment venues started opening up again, consumers are spending a bit more of their income and savings on those options instead of ordering more online goods.

LAX, meanwhile, has continued to benefit from shipments of pandemic-related goods – everything from masks and other personal protective equipment to vaccines.