HARLINGEN — Valley International Airport’s passenger numbers continue to reflect strong demand, soaring 26.4 percent higher in October compared to last year.
Total enplanement numbers for the month totaled 38,015 passengers, up nearly 8,000 from a year ago.
Airport officials said this week one would have to go back to between 2005 and 2008 to see similar numbers in the busy month of March, let alone a usually slower month like October.
“Just phenomenal numbers, Southwest nailing it with the increased seats in the market,” Marv Esterly, director of aviation at VIA, told the airport board this week. “About 64 percent over last year.”
For the past several months, VIA has been pushing past the 40,000-enplanement market or nudging right up to it.
Typically, passenger numbers fall off when school starts in September and pick back up for the holidays, but this year has been an exception.
Southwest Airlines earlier this year dramatically increased the number of seats offered in the market, which has helped offset the loss of Frontier Airlines and Viva Aerobus, which pulled out of Harlingen.
Southwest boarded 24,195 passengers in October, a 64.1 percent increase over last year.
Following Southwest was United Airlines with 4,370 passengers, a decrease of 33.9 percent, American Airlines with 7,551 passengers, a 47.9 percent increase, and Sun Country Airlines with 1,899 passengers.
Sun Country was up 1,899 percent over last year, which reflects the airline beginning its seasonal flights to and from Minneapolis earlier this year than last.
“United Airlines is still struggling with pilots and crew, and hopefully they get those things fixed,” Esterly told the board. “They know they have to put more seats in this market. American is taking advantage of that, as you can see they’re up 47.9 percent over 2021 with over 7,500 passengers.”
Esterly said that for years Sun Country would start their flights in October, but with more Winter Texans arriving and staying in the Valley, the airlines this year began flights in September.
“Overall, they’re super happy,” Esterly said. “Their numbers are better and stronger than they ever have been.”
Esterly told the board the increase in passenger enplanements is primarily due to more leisure travel, and perhaps a pent-up desire to fly after two years of disruption due to the pandemic.
“The airlines thought that leisure traffic was going to come back faster, and they were correct, and then business travelers,” he said.
