IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
At last, some good news regarding Ontario International Airport’s passenger count.
One year after its operations were all but shut down because of COVID-19, the airport recorded a year-over-year increase in passenger traffic of more than 900 percent, according to data released Tuesday.
More than 298,000 air travelers passed through Ontario International in April, 933 percent more than April, 2020, when the airport accommodated fewer than 29,000 travelers, the Ontario International Airport Authority reported.
During the first four months of 2021, Ontario International handled more than 862,000 passengers, a drop of 24 percent from the same four-month period a year ago. The first three months of 2020 were not affected by the pandemic.
“The tenfold increase in traffic this April compared to last April may be eye-popping, but a better reflection of our recovery can be seen in this year’s passenger numbers versus pre-pandemic levels,” said Mark Thorpe, the airport authority’s chief executive officer, in a statement.”Those numbers show we are steadily regaining passenger volume as airlines restart suspended services and initiate new routes at Ontario.”
Two hundred ninety five thousand of the April travelers were domestic, nearly 3,600 international, declines of 29 percent and 85 percent, respectively. The 862,428 passenger count from January through April this year was 47.5 percent, lower than the same period in 2019, according to the authority.
