IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Ontario International Airport continued to take a severe beating from COVID-19 in May, as passenger traffic fell 85 percent year-over-year.
Last month, 70,296 passengers passed through Ontario International, compared with 449,092 passengers in May 2019, according to data released Monday by the Ontario International Airport Authority.
All of those were domestic passengers. The airport’s International carriers – Frontier, China Airlines and Volaris – remained suspended.
One point two million passengers used Ontario International from January through May, a 43 percent drop from the same period last year
While passenger traffic plummeted, air cargo moved in the opposite direction: Ontario International processed 81,000 tons of commercial cargo last month, a 24.1 percent year-over-year increase. From January through May, freight at Ontario International totaled more than 342,000 tons, up 18.3 percent compared with the first five months of 2019.
The increase in cargo freight is relatively easy to explain: a lot of people who are staying home are shopping online. As for the dismal passenger numbers, airport officials expect those to turn around soon.
“We are optimistic that passenger traffic will pick up in the coming months based on flight schedules published by air carriers,” said Mark Thorpe, the airport authority’s chief executive officer, in the statement.
