S.D. AIRPORT HITS PANDEMIC MILESTONE BY SERVING 2 MILLION PASSENGERS IN JUNE

Demand for leisure travel up as airlines, airports are facing staffing challenges

A little over two years after the pandemic brought air travel to a near standstill, the San Diego International Airport has reached a key turning point, serving more than 2 million passengers in June. That’s the first time it has reached that monthly threshold since December 2019.

While the passenger traffic for June is 30 percent greater than it was a year ago, it is still down nearly 10 percent compared with the same period in 2019.

Nonetheless, San Diego’s latest air traffic numbers confirm what anyone who’s been in an airport recently already knows — demand for travel is soaring at a time when airlines and airports are facing staffing challenges, airfares are higher than ever, and inflation is cutting into consumers’ discretionary spending.

“This is great progress for San Diego,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst with Atmosphere Research Group. “While it’s too soon yet to crown a winner for the summertime, this certainly puts San Diego International in contention for being one of the most successful airports in terms of its recovery — especially when you also consider international travel is still far below pre-COVID levels.

“This also speaks to the power of San Diego as a vacation destination.”

San Diego’s June traffic, as is always the case, is dominated by domestic travelers. International travel in and out of the country still remains far off pre-pandemic numbers, given the varying types of COVID-related restrictions that had been in place in the U.S. and other countries.

The total number of passengers traveling within the U.S. who passed through San Diego in June was down 9 percent compared to 2019. By contrast, the number of international passengers slid 24 percent compared with the same period two years ago.

Just a few months earlier, in March, domestic air travel in San Diego was down 16 percent compared with March 2019, while international travel was 49 percent less than passenger volumes two years earlier.

San Diego’s three major overseas flights — nonstops to London, Tokyo and Munich, Germany — are all currently operating but they are not yet back to a daily frequency.

The increasingly promising rebound comes against a backdrop of a chaotic summer travel season marked by airline staffing issues, COVID-19 outbreaks, severe storms and surging demand. The number of complaints about airline service filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation rose 237 percent in May.

The air travel disruptions, though, should dissipate soon as kids return to school and the slower fall season kicks in, experts say.

“As we get into the fall, we’ll get some relief because fall is usually a weaker time for travel, especially leisure travel, and that will give the airlines some time to catch their breath so they’re not in a full capacity situation where any mistake can send the industry into a spiral,” said James Cordimore, senior insights manager for research firm Similarweb.

“It will be up to a year until we get staffing levels for pilots, ramp agents, security, mechanics, back up to pre-pandemic levels,” Cordimore

said.

Kim Becker, chief executive officer of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, said Monday that passenger volumes for July are similarly trending upward and approaching levels seen before the pandemic.

Through the first six months of this year, total passenger traffic was more than 10 million, down 17 percent from more than 12 million over the same period in 2019. But the summer months, she said, have far out-performed passenger traffic earlier in the year.

“The industry is struggling with staffing shortages, but at the San Diego airport, TSA is fully staffed,” Becker said. “We haven’t seen any issues with security checkpoints at all. And we haven’t seen the kinds of cancellations occurring across the country. We also don’t have the summer storms like elsewhere so we’re in pretty good shape.”

Southwest Airlines, which operates the most f lights out of San Diego, says it returned to pre-pandemic staffing levels in May of this year and recently reported that cancellations represented less than 1 percent of the airline’s scheduled flights in May and June.

“We continue to welcome more travelers back to Southwest Airlines and we’re pleased with our performance in San Diego,” spokesperson Dan Landson said Monday.

“Leisure travel continues leading our recovery and we’re also seeing sequential improvement with our business travelers as more organizations ease travel restrictions for their employees.”