At the four airports serving Los Angeles County, it’s a tale of two worlds.
The three regional airports – Hollywood Burbank, Long Beach and Ontario International – are beginning to soar above pre-pandemic passenger traffic levels. In February, they cumulatively recorded passenger counts 9% above February 2019 and 13% more than a year ago.
Los Angeles International Airport, while growing year over year, still lags 19% behind pre-pandemic passenger levels. Since the pandemic hit, international traffic has been the main drag, but now domestic passenger traffic is holding back a full recovery at the county’s largest airport.
At the three regional airports, Ontario International led the way: its 413,000-passenger count in February was nearly 14% above pre-pandemic February 2019. The nearly 400,000 passengers that went through the gates at Hollywood Burbank in February was 8.5% more than the same month four years ago. And Long Beach’s 257,000 passengers for February was 3% above 2019 levels.
LAX
But passenger traffic at Los Angeles International Airport, although it grew more rapidly year over year at 20%, has remained stubbornly unable to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
February’s level of 4.9 million passengers that went through the gates was 19.2% below February 2019. That’s little changed from the 19.4% drop in January from January 2019.
The main reason for this halting recovery is slowing growth in domestic passenger travel, which increased 6.5% in February to 3.55 million from the same month last year. That’s still 18% short of pre-pandemic 2019. Going back in time a year, the February 2022 domestic passenger tally was up nearly140% over February 2021 reflecting the rapid recovery phase after the worst of the pandemic had passed.
International passenger traffic, though a smaller portion of the pie, saw an 80% jump in passengers in February to 1.4 million compared to the same month a year ago.
“We are seeing passenger confidence in travel grow stronger, as evidenced by the increase in spring break travel, and we are very optimistic that we will see this trend continue,” said Justin Erbacci, chief executive of Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX.
The question now is what level of growth can be expected as the busier summer travel season approaches. Because the surge in demand last summer caught airlines flat-footed on their staffing levels, which in turn led to delays and cancelled flights, airlines have pruned their flight schedules for this summer.
According to several news reports, Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines Inc. plans to cut tens of thousands of flights this summer, while Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. plans to cut thousands of flights.
But Erbacci said several enhancements have been made at LAX that airport executives hope will lure passengers back.
“Our award-winning economy parking lot, enhanced digital dining options and LAX Fast Lane screening option are just a few of the ways in which we are improving the passenger experience as we look towards a busy summer,” Erbacci said.
How much the other three regional airports can grow their passenger traffic depends in no small part on the fortunes of Dallas, Texas-based Southwest Airlines Co., which has the majority of flights at all three airports. Southwest is still recovering from its holiday season meltdown where many of its planes were stuck after a major winter storm because it could not get crews into place to fly them.
Cargo volume flat
Cargo tonnage at the four airports serving Los Angeles County was flat in February compared to January at about 245,000 metric tons. More than 95% of that tonnage comes from LAX and Ontario.
As has been the case for most of the past 12 months, cargwo tonnage was down in 13% in February compared to the same month last year. But in another long-running trend, cargo tonnage was up 13% from pre-pandemic February 2019.
