HARLINGEN — The number of enplaned passengers at Valley International Airport dipped in August, with 35,100 passengers boarding commercial carriers for the month.
For the past several months, VIA has been pushing past or up to the 40,000-passenger mark, but airport officials told the facility’s board of directors this week that August typically is far less active.
“August was a pretty darn good month for an August,” Marv Esterly, director of aviation at VIA, told board members. “Of course, you know, the kids are going back to school and things start to slow down in the summertime, but the numbers were astounding, numbers that we would typically see on a really good year during spring break, 35,000 enplaned passengers, which now we’re seeing in August. And that is significant.”
Southwest Airlines continued to dominate the Harlingen market, with 23,985 passengers, which means they had 68 percent of market share at VIA, up from 53 percent in August 2021.
“I can remember in 2015 when I got here, I think we had months with everyone that didn’t rival that, so it was good to see,” Esterly said.
Part of the reduction in passenger numbers is the result of Frontier Airlines pulling out of the market here on Aug. 6, citing pilot and crew issues.
“United Airlines is down 46 percent and that is all because of pilot and crew issues, smaller aircraft, less seats in the market, and that’s happening nationwide, particularly at the legacy carriers, United, Delta, American, they’re really experiencing that,” Esterly said. “In meetings with United, United said to us, ‘Hey, we know you need more seats, everyone does,’ but we know we need to get them back in there as soon as we can, but it is a pilot and crew issue.”
American Airlines was up 2.6 percent for the month, enplaning 6,513 passengers.
Minneapolis-based Sun Country Airlines, which extended its normal seasonal flights to begin a popular nonstop to Cancun, logged 417 passengers before suspending those flights for the season on Aug. 13.
