Passenger traffic at Long Beach Airport hit its third record-high month of the year in June, while Ontario International Airport neared its all-time record high.

Meanwhile, in June and for the entire first half of the year, domestic passenger travel at Los Angeles International Airport was flat year-over-year and remains about 15% below pre-pandemic levels.

In June, about 8.64 million passengers went through terminal gates at LAX, Ontario, Hollywood Burbank and Long Beach. That was up nearly 5% from June of last year, but was down 7.5% from pre-pandemic June 2019.

And for the first half of this year, passenger traffic at the four airports hit 45.5 million, up more than 5% from the same period last year, but again down more than 9% from the same six months of pre-pandemic 2019.

Records hit at Long Beach

For the third month in the last four, a record number of passengers went through the gates at Long Beach Airport in June: nearly 379,000 fliers. That was up more than 18% from June of last year and up more than 23% from pre-pandemic June 2019.

The century-old municipal airport also hit monthly passenger records in March and May.

“It continues to be a record-breaking year at Long Beach Airport with June reporting a second consecutive month of record-breaking commercial passenger enplanements,” said Long Beach Airport Director Cynthia Guidry.

A major reason for the string of records is the increased use of the airport’s 58 flight slots after the total number of slots was raised from 53 early last year. The number of slots is tied to overall noise limits; as newer, quieter planes have been introduced, the number of flights has been allowed to increase.

Shortly after that move, Southwest Airlines acquired 10 additional flight slots, for a total of 50, and gradually began increasing its schedule. 

Meanwhile, at Ontario International Airport, the nearly 653,000 passengers that went through the gates in June was up nearly 17% from June of last year and represented the highest total since the airport returned to local control in 2016. It’s just a little short of the all-time record number of passengers (693,000) set in August 2007, just before the onset of the Great Recession.

“With 40 consecutive months of year-over-year growth, Ontario International Airport continues to prove itself the aviation hub of choice for more Southern California residents and visitors,” said Atif Elkadi, chief executive of the Ontario International Airport Authority.

For the first half of 2024, 3.3 million passengers went through the gates at Ontario, up 11% from last year and 28% from pre-pandemic 2019.

LAX domestic passenger traffic stalls out

While Long Beach and Ontario have soared, Hollywood Burbank and especially LAX have seen much more modest growth, with domestic passenger traffic growth at LAX completely stalling out.

For the first half of 2024, 37.1 million passengers went through the gates at LAX, up 4.1% from the same period last year but down nearly 14% from pre-pandemic 2019.

The one trend that stands out, though, is the flattening of the domestic passenger growth curve: The 25.5 million domestic passengers going through the terminal gates at LAX for the first six months of this year was up a mere 0.3% from the same period last year. In June, the total was actually down 0.2% to 4.79 million compared with the same month of last year.

Officials with Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX, have in recent months cited adjustments that airlines have made to their flight schedules that resulted in fewer flights to and from LAX.

Back in the spring, officials hoped that these adjustments were temporary, but they have persisted, with no end in sight.

For a time, the lackluster domestic passenger counts at LAX were offset by double-digit percentage growth year-over-year in international passenger traffic. But in recent months, that growth rate has dipped below 10%. That in turn has pushed back the expected milestone of surpassing pre-pandemic 2019 totals for international travelers until the fourth quarter at the earliest.

Slight rebound in air cargo tonnage

For most of the last two years, air cargo tonnage at the four airports serving Los Angeles County has been declining year-over-year, since a pandemic-related surge in cargo began petering out.

But in the second quarter, that trend reversed, and cargo tonnage has been growing again year-over-year. In June, 271,000 metric tons of cargo were handled at the four airports, up 3% from June of last year.

Roughly 98% of the 271,000 metric tons handled at the four airports in June came from just two of them: LAX and Ontario. Of those two airports, the rebound has been more pronounced at LAX in recent months, culminating in June with a growth rate of 6% compared with a drop of 5% at Ontario.

For the first half of the year, LAX saw a 2.5% growth rate year-over-year in air cargo tonnage, compared with a slight drop of 0.9% at Ontario.