IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
May was another solid month at Ontario International Airport.
Passenger activity was up 3.4 percent compared with May 2014, as the airport served 365,059 passengers last month, according to data released recently.
Some of that increase can be attributed to international traffic, which has grown steadily at Ontario International during the past 12 months.
The airport’s two international carriers, AeroMexico and Volaris, served 13,413 passengers during May, a 54.8 percent increase compared with May 2014, according to Los Angeles World Airports.
Those airlines offer 11 non-stop flights between Ontario and Mexico every week, four to Mexico City and eight to Guadalajara. But international traffic alone might not explain Ontario International’s jump in passenger traffic.
“For whatever reason, people are traveling again,” said Maria Tesoro, airport spokeswoman. “We don’t know for sure why, but they are, and whenever people are traveling, that’s good.”
Ontario International’s traffic plummeted during the recession, prompting Ontario to file a lawsuit seeking to get control of the facility away from its owner, the city of Los Angeles. That dispute is ongoing.
However, during the past year, Ontario International has experienced only one month-over-month decrease in passenger traffic, a slight decrease that happened in January. That drop was attributed to severe snowstorms on the east coast, Tesoro said.
Ontario International has eight carriers. The airport provides commercial jet service – about 62 departures a day – to 15 major U.S. cities, according to LAWA, the city agency that manages Ontario International and Los Angeles International airports.
