Air traffic at local airports continued to rebound in June from the Covid lockdown two years ago, with two airports again exceeding pre-pandemic passenger counts and Los Angeles International hitting its highest passenger total since the pandemic began.
For the fourth straight month, the number of passengers at both Hollywood-Burbank and Ontario International airports in April surged past pre-lockdown June 2019 levels, by nearly 8% and more than 4%, respectively. The third regional airport, Long Beach, was not far behind, falling short of June 2019’s level by 4%.
Taken as a group, these three regional airports registered a 3.5% increase in passengers in June compared to the same month three years ago.
LAX was more of a mixed bag. Its tally of 6.1 million passengers was up 25% from a year ago and the highest since the pandemic began. But it was still 24% short of pre-pandemic June 2019’s total.
The growth in passengers was most dramatic at Burbank, as the 542,000 count in June was 51% higher than the same month last year. Long Beach Airport’s year-over-year growth rate was just behind, at 49%, with 294,000 passengers in June.
Ontario’s 19% year-over-year passenger growth in June was slower than Burbank and Long Beach. And the 514,000 passengers that went through its gates in June fell just short of May’s 519,000 total, which was the highest monthly total since 2016.
LAX
Thanks to its heavier reliance on international travel, which only recently began to rebound from pandemic restrictions, the region’s biggest airport, LAX, saw 24% fewer passengers in June than the June prior to the pandemic. And that was enough to keep the cumulative total of passengers at all four airports – nearly 7.5 million – down 20% from June 2019.
But international passenger volume at LAX surged in June, up 112% from the same month last year as more than 1.6 million travelers went through gates to and from international flights. That was also up nearly twelvefold from the 128,000 international passengers in June 2020.
The overall June passenger tally of 6.1 million at LAX marked the first time the airport topped the 6 million mark since January 2020.
“We are watching our international traffic increase and our strong domestic network take off,” said Justin Erbacci, chief executive of Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that oversees LAX.
Preliminary figures for July, however, indicate a slight pause in the return to pre-pandemic passenger counts at LAX. According to figures from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, roughly 2.9 million passengers went through TSA checkpoints at LAX on their way to board aircraft, representing a 26% drop compared to July 2019.
The boarding figures do not include arriving passengers or those who don’t go through security checkpoints as they connect to other flights.
First-half performance
For the first half of this year, 37.6 million passengers went through the gates at the four airports serving Los Angeles County. That was up 75% from the same six months of last year, when the region was still in the grip of the pandemic. But it was still 25% below the tally for the same period in 2019, prior to Covid-19.
The three smaller regional airports saw their cumulative passenger count double for the first six months of this year compared to last year, led by Burbank, which was up 161%. That was enough to push the tally for those three airports to more than 6.9 million passengers, just 1.7% shy of the 7 million passengers for the same period in 2019.
Ontario International recorded 2.6 million passengers during the first half of this year, 2.6% higher than the first half of 2019 and 60% more than the same period last year.
“Ontario International’s performance this year shows what full recovery looks like and we couldn’t be happier for it,” Alan Wapner, president of the Ontario International Airport Authority board of commissioners and mayor pro tem for the city of Ontario, said in a statement. “With demand for air travel through Ontario growing month after month, we are ramping up for more air service by opening all of our 27 aircraft terminal gates.”
Meanwhile, LAX posted a growth rate of 70% for the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. But the tally of 30.6 million left the airport 27% shy of the passenger volume for the first six months of 2019.
Cargo Dip
Air cargo tonnage at the four airports serving Los Angeles County continued to drop in June, with the 315,000 metric tons registered in June down more than 3% from June of last year.
LAX reported a decrease of 3.3% to 239,000 metric tons, while Ontario posted a 2% drop to 72,000 metric tons. These two airports handle 98% of the total air cargo moving through the four airports serving Los Angeles County.
The drop in air cargo is the result of continuing supply chain issues and somewhat less consumer demand as consumers are spending a bigger portion of their income and savings on dining and entertainment. Inflation may also have prompted some cutbacks in consumer demand.
Yet June’s cargo levels were still up 20% from pre-pandemic June 2019.
For the first six months of this year, the cumulative cargo tonnage percentage changes were almost identical to the June trends.
