Austin Airport Breaks Passenger Traffic Record

AUSTIN, TEXAS — If you've sensed more activity at the Austin-Berstrom International Airport than normal at the transportation hub typically experiencing brisk activity, you'd be right. Officials have released traffic numbers for last year, and they set records.

The Austin airport had a record year in 2018, officials said, with a new annual passenger traffic record of 15.8 million passengers flying through the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. ABIA officials noted the results surpass the previous 2017 record-setting mark of 13.8 million travelers by nearly two million, with 1.9 million more passengers.

Since 2010, this is the ninth consecutive year that the Austin airport has set a new annual passenger record. All told in terms of passenger activity, total traffic for December 2018 was 1,263,135, up 6.1 percent, compared to December 2017. December 2018 enplanements totaled 646,181, up 5.6 percent.

Of the dozen airliners surveyed, only three — AeroMexico, ViaAir and Volaris — saw traffic go down from the previous year's comparable period. Here's the breakdown per carrier:

• Southwest Airlines passengers totaled 472,344 up 5.3 percent compared to December 2017.
• American Airlines passengers totaled 241,394, up 8.1 percent.
• United Airlines passengers totaled 193,618, down 1.4 percent.
• Delta Air Lines passengers totaled 162,117, up 15.3 percent.
• Frontier Airlines passengers totaled 57,186, up 21.4 percent.
• Alaska Airlines passengers totaled 49,513, up 52.6 percent.
• JetBlue Airways passengers totaled 45,955, up 0.3 percent.
• Allegiant Air passengers totaled 16,267, down 32.5 percent.
• British Airways passengers totaled 14,146, up 44.7 percent.
• Air Canada passengers totaled 4,535, up 26.8 percent.
• AeroMexico passengers totaled 4,259, down 0.2 percent.
• ViaAir passengers totaled 1,567; and Volaris passengers totaled 279, down 76.2 percent.

Conversely, the level of air cargo went down during the studied period of time. In December 2018, air cargo totaled 15,011,829 pounds, down 5.7 percent compared to December 2017. International air cargo totaled 1,406,299 lbs., down 31.1 percent. Federal Express carried 7.6 million lbs., down 5.1 percent while United Parcel Service carried 3.7 million lbs., down 6.2 percent. Moreover, Air Services transferred 791,185 lbs. of mail, up 12.2 percent, and 1,791,769 lbs. of belly freight, down 2.6 percent.

In terms of aircraft operations, General Aviation operations totaled 3,496, up 0.5 percent. Combined operations (including commercial and military) totaled 16,295, up 2.1 percent.

ABIA officials broke down the numbers further, counting traffic per carrier from January to December 2018. All told, passenger traffic in the two-month period was 15,819,912, up 13.9 percent, compared to January to December 2017. Enplanements during the period totaled 7,921797, up 13.6 percent.

The per-carrier data from January to December 2018:

• Southwest Airlines passengers totaled 5,584,730, up 8 percent.
• American Airlines passengers 2,836,375, up 7.9 percent.
• United Airlines passengers totaled 2,334,294, up 3.2 percent.
• Delta Air Lines passengers 2,098,980, up 18.1 percent.
• Frontier Airlines passengers totaled 1,128,941, up 134.8 percent.
• JetBlue Airways passengers totaled 581,032, down 2.5 percent.
• Alaska Airlines passengers totaled 561,400, up 93.9 percent.
• Allegiant Air passengers totaled 276,296, up 3.1 percent.
• British Airways passengers totaled 171,559, up 33.1 percent.
• Norwegian passengers totaled 54,123.
• Air Canada passengers totaled 49,126 up 16.9 percent.
• AeroMexico passengers totaled 43,657, up 13.3 percent.
• Sun Country Airlines passengers totaled 25,362.
• ViaAir passengers totaled 22,950.
• Condor passengers totaled 18,876.
• Volaris passengers totaled 14,187, down 6.4 percent.
• Virgin America passengers totaled 11,117.
• Vacation Express passengers totaled 2,758.
• Swift Air passengers totaled 2,544.
• Scandinavian passengers totaled 697.

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