OIA traffic up

Passenger traffic was up at Ontario International Airport last year.

The Los Angeles-owned airport served 4.1 million passengers in 2014, up from 3.9 million passengers in 2013, according to Los Angeles World Airports, the agency that owns and operates the facility.

That’s an increase of nearly four percent, a noticeable improvement compared with one year ago, when passenger traffic was down eight percent year-over-year. International traffic rose nearly 58 percent, as AeorMexico and Volaris served more than 90,000 passengers at Ontario last year, according to data released Tuesday by LAWA.

Still, Ontario officials – who are in litigation with Los Angeles regarding control of the two-terminal airport – aren’t celebrating, according to City Manager Al Boling.

“Any increase in passenger traffic at Ontario International is good news, but I think we have to put these numbers in perspective,” Boling said. “Traffic is up six percent at Los Angeles International, where they just served a record number of passengers, about 70.6 million.

“Ontario is also three million passengers below its peak year of 2007, so we still have a long way to go.”

Passenger count at Ontario International dropped to levels not seen since the mid-1980s after the recession hit in 2008. Ontario officials have accused to Los Angeles of neglecting Ontario International for sake of Los Angeles International.