San Antonio airport gears up for another record Thanksgiving

San Antonio International Airport is over its years-long pandemic-induced travel slump, with months of record passenger totals this year under its belt and more to come as the holidays near.

Since May, the airport has consistently surpassed its monthly passenger numbers from 2019, which was the airport’s busiest year before COVID sent worldwide travel into a nosedive in 2020.

This year’s Memorial Day and Fourth of July weekends both broke passenger records. Also in July, 1 million travelers passed through the airport in a single month for the first time in the facility’s history.

Airport Director Jesus Saenz said he expects the airport to see about 11 million passengers by the end of year, compared with the 10.4 million who made their way through San Antonio International in 2019.

Saenz said the airport is in “a very positive, postCOVID pandemic position.”

Just short of normal

San Antonio International came close to returning to normal last year, even breaking prepandemic records during the Thanksgiving holiday season. But it fell short, with about 9% fewer travelers in 2022 compared with 2019 — partly because December’s arctic blast and Southwest Airlines’ subsequent meltdown kept a recordbreaking Christmas and New Year out of reach.

Last year’s travel totals were nearly back to normal for domestic flights, Saenz noted, and international travel this year finally rebounded, driving up the airport’s annual passenger total.

In 2020, the height of the pandemic, San Antonio International closed out its year with about 4 million travelers compared with 10.4 million in 2019, a 61% drop.

The airport’s emergence from the pandemic is a common story around the country.

Most major airports and airlines recovered from the pandemic last year, said Ahmed Abdelghany, associate dean of research at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s college of business in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Abdelghany said demand for air travel had returned to normal across the country as of last summer, but the resurgence came faster than many airlines expected, leaving airlines scrambling to fill positions they’d cut earlier in the pandemic. The labor shortages resulted in many flight cancellations and delays, roiling the industry.

But Abdelghany said carriers largely had the workers they needed by the end of summer 2022, well before last year’s busy Thanksgiving season.

And as long as a recession or another pandemic doesn’t erupt, Abdelghany said global air travel should see regular growth in 2024 — a 6% or so annual increase in the number of travelers.

“This era is over,” Abdelghany said of the pandemic’s drag on the travel industry. “I think everybody put that behind them.”

Ready for a record

San Antonio International is expecting to see 189,620 travelers passing through the airport between Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, and the following Sunday. That would be 20% more passengers than in 2019’s Thanksgiving week and about 17% more than last year’s record.

Saenz said the holiday crush could start this weekend and keep going through Monday after the holiday.

“We’re elated that we have the passengers inside the terminals traveling and going to go see loved ones during this Thanksgiving holiday season,” he said. “That’s exactly why airports exist: to connect people to their families, to their businesses and to their friends.”

Saenz also expects the December holiday season to set records this year.

Parking at the airport likely will be at its tightest on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Ryan Rocha, the airport’s chief of operations. Last year, airport officials added 1,000 overflow parking spaces ahead of the holidays. Rocha said this year there are an additional 500 overflow spaces at the ready.

AAA Texas projects that 4 million Texans will travel — either on roadways, by plane or other means — during the Thanksgiving holiday. That’s a 2% increase over last year but still 4% less than 2019.

Nationwide, AAA projects that 55.4 million travelers, including 4.7 million air passengers, will make it the third busiest Thanksgiving week, behind 2005’s 58.6 million travelers and 2019’s 56 million.

AAA Texas expects 244,000 people in Texas to fly, or 4% more than during last year’s Thanksgiving holiday — but still 11% fewer compared with 2019.