Passenger traffic at three of the four airports serving Los Angeles County – Ontario International, Hollywood Burbank and Long Beach – soared to double-digit percentage gains over pre-pandemic levels in February. It was almost as if the pandemic never happened.
But the pandemic’s pall is still casting a shadow over the 800-pound gorilla of local airports: Los Angeles International. Domestic passenger traffic at LAX remains stuck at around 85% of pre-pandemic levels. International passenger traffic, while rebounding rapidly towards 2019’s peak, is still 5% short.
LAX’s lagging performance means that the total February passenger count at the four airports of about 6.46 million was still 8.6% below pre-pandemic Feb. 2019.
Meanwhile, there were mixed results for cargo tonnage handled at the four airports – really just LAX and Ontario, which together handle 98% of all the region’s air cargo.
When compared to pre-pandemic 2019, February’s total of nearly 237,000 tons was nearly 10% higher – much more of a jump than had been recorded in previous months. But cargo tonnage was down more than 3% from the level of a year ago and more than 15% from the pandemic-induced 2021 peak.
Regional airports taking off
Returning to the passenger tallies, both Ontario and Long Beach saw February counts more than 20% higher than the same month five years ago, before the pandemic hit: Ontario was up nearly 24% to just under 450,000, while Long Beach was up nearly 22% to 306,000.
“February proved to be another positive month for Ontario International as we extended our streak of consecutive months with higher passenger volume,” said Atif Elkadi, chief executive officer of the Ontario International Airport Authority. “The numbers speak for themselves and are further evidence that (Ontario) continues to be the airport of choice for Southern California.”
Hollywood Burbank also posted robust results in February, up more than 13% compared to five years ago to…
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