HARLINGEN — Airlines and airports continue to struggle with passenger numbers, which are improving only by fits and starts one year after the pandemic struck.
At Valley International Airport, signs of some acceleration in passenger traffic took a tumble in February, with passenger enplanements down 55.9 percent compared to the same month in 2020.
“We kind of expected that over January and February, we thought that we would see a dip, because not only are those slower times of the year compared to November and December, but we’ve also seen capacity cuts in the market,” Marv Esterly, director of aviation at VIA, told the airport board at a meeting last week.
“Southwest was down to two flights, American was down to two flights at that point,” he added. “We’re starting to see that rebound now in March and we’re quite happy about that …”
Airlines at VIA have cut back on flights due to lower demand, but there are signs they are ready to become more muscular when it comes to adding flights, Esterly said.
“Southwest Airlines was down 65 percent and United was down 48 percent and American was down 15 percent,” he added. “Frontier down 53 percent, Sun Country down 37 percent.”
“You’ve seen some of the stuff that was put out that we also will see some additional capacity with American Airlines,” Esterly said. “Eight extra sections with Sun Country Airlines, Southwest moving to three flights and hopefully a fourth here soon, and United also now at three flights and could be moving to four soon.”
Airlines, and airports, are hoping pent-up travel demand will break out this spring and summer, tied of course to the rising number of COVID-19 vaccinated travelers.
Nationally, more than 1.4 million people were screened at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints last Thursday and Friday, the two highest daily figures in about a year.
TSA has screened just above 1.1 million people per day on average so far in March, far above the 873,000 in February and 110,000 per day average recorded last April.
Still, travel demand remains far below pre-pandemic days, when in March 2019 TSA was screening more than 2.3 million people per day.
Cargo traffic has been a bright spot at VIA over the course of the pandemic, fueled in part by more people ordering items online for delivery to their homes.
But February 2021 also saw a big step backward in air freight, with total air cargo down 34.9 percent year-over-year.
“Our cargo traffic is down 25 percent Fedex for February, Southwest was down 67 percent, and of course again, with less planes flying in that’s less belly available for cargo, so that’s what’s really driving that,” Esterly said.
“Some of those numbers being down is because Fedex and DHL didn’t operate for four or five days because of the freeze,” noted Bryan Wren, assistant director of aviation.
