IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Ontario International Airport just completed its best September in nearly 20 years.
The airport accommodated 606,015 travelers last month, a nine percent increase compared with September 2023, the Ontario International Airport Authority reported.
That total consisted of 575,513 domestic and 30,502 international customers. Domestic customers were up 10.7 percent, while the international count was down 15.7 percent.
The previous high passenger count for September at Ontario International was recorded in 2005, when 589,242 air travelers passed through the turnstiles.
“We made history in September, and we expect to set a new record in 2024 for calendar year passenger volume since the airport’s return to local ownership in 2016,” said Atif Elkadi, the airport authority’s chief executive officer, in a statement on the authority’s website. “We are closing in on the all-time annual record which is achievable in part because our international airport is unconstrained by passenger and flight caps, curfews and other constraints common among (other) airports in Southern California.”
During the first nine months of 2024, Ontario International recorded 5.2 million passengers, 11.5 percent more than the same period last year. The airport is on pace to serve more than seven million passengers this year, the airport authority reported.
