Passenger traffic at the four airports serving Los Angeles County continued to rebound toward pre-pandemic levels in November, led in large part by major gains in international traffic.
Roughly 7.56 million total passengers went through the gates at Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Hollywood-Burbank and Long Beach airports in November, up more than 9% from the same month in 2022 and only 6% below pre-pandemic Nov. 2019’s total.
International passenger traffic at the two airports set up for it – LAX and Ontario – was up substantially year over year: 22% at LAX to nearly 1.9 million in November and a whopping 99% at Ontario to 40,000.
Ontario’s international bonanza
The rebound in international traffic at LAX has drawn much attention over the past year, but months of robust gains in international passenger counts at Ontario not so much, partly because the gains have been off such a small base of under 20,000 passengers a month.
Nonetheless, the international passenger traffic gains at Ontario were dramatic over much of last year, and it’s almost all due to China Airlines, the main air carrier based in Taiwan. For the first 11 months of last year, passenger counts from China Airlines at Ontario shot up 633% to nearly 168,000, an increase of about 145,000 passengers. That numeric increase is by far the largest year-over-year jump of any airline at the airport, dwarfing the 73,000 gain in passengers at Southwest Airlines Co., long the dominant carrier there.
In fact, this huge jump now means international passenger traffic is for the first time in a generation a significant enough factor at Ontario for the United States Customs and Border Protection agency to open a new global entry enrollment center at the airport. The center, which opened late last month, allows for expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in this country.
“We are thrilled that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has selected Ontario to serve…
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