Fresno air travel was hit hard by the COVID pandemic. But how much has it recovered?
For the first couple of months of 2020, it looked like Fresno Yosemite International Airport was in for a record-breaking year.
More passengers took off on flights from Fresno in January and February of last year than the same two-month period of any prior year, including the previous record year of 2019. A total of more than 143,000 people flowed through the boarding gates onto domestic and international flights.
But the global COVID-19 pandemic soon curtailed travel, as would-be travelers canceled travel plans and airlines canceled flights starting in March. Any hopes for 2020 to surpass 2019 records came crashing to the ground.
The number of outbound passengers from Fresno was down 46% in March compared to 12 months earlier. By April, the scope of the damage to the travel industry was painfully clear – a drop of more than 92% compared to April 2019.
The number of flights to and from Fresno by commercial airlines was also substantially reduced, with as many as two-thirds of flights chopped from schedules in some months relative to the prior year.
Over the past 10 months, however, activity is increasing at the airport. It’s not a complete rebound, at least not yet. But Kevin Meikle, director of aviation for the city of Fresno, said there are now days when the parking lots at the airport are full.
“The airlines are seeing a positive trend with pent-up demand for travel now and in the coming months,” Meikle said in March. “At FAT, this trend reflects a combination of Southwest Airlines launching brand-new service in April, our airline partners resuming markets and adding seat capacity with more flights and destinations, all of which expands options for Central Valley travelers and an air gateway for visitors to explore our surrounding region and national parks.”
Here’s what the numbers look like for outbound passengers since last March:
- March - 2019, 64,151 passengers; 2020, 34,225 passengers, down 47%.
- April - 2019, 71,092 passengers; 2020, 5,393 passengers, down 92%.
- May - 2019, 75,455 passengers; 2020, 12,394 passengers, down 84%.
- June - 2019, 77,582 passengers; 2020, 20,926 passengers, down 73%.
- July - 2019, 79,281 passengers; 2020, 32,191 passenges, down 59%.
- August - 2019, 75,017 passengers; 2020, 32,976 passengers, down 56%.
- September - 2019, 72,669 passengers; 2020, 34,018 passengers, down 53%.
- October - 2019, 78,382 passengers; 2020, 43,337 passengers, down 45%.
- November - 2019, 70,539 passengers; 2020, 38,595 passengers, down 45%.
- December - 2019, 75,063 passengers; 2020, 35,558 passengers, down 53%.
- January - 2020, 65,290 passengers; 2021, 29,065 passengers, down 55%.
Airlines that had slashed the number of flights are also rebuilding their capacity. Some are entering the market for the first time, as happened this month when Southwest Airlines launched daily round trips from Fresno to Denver and Las Vegas. Others have added destinations or increased their flight frequency.
Those include Alaska Airlines, which began twice-daily nonstop round-trips between Fresno and Los Angeles in September; Mexico-based Volaris launching nonstop flights between Fresno and Mexico City last fall; Delta Air Lines’ announcement earlier this year that it will commence service to Seattle in late May 2021; United Airlines resuming its daily flight to Chicago in May; and American Airlines’ plans to offer seasonal service to Chicago starting in June..
In January 2021, the most recent month for which passenger and flight data is available, 681 flights by domestic airlines took off from the Fresno airport. That’s down by more than one-third from January 2020, but more than twice as many as in April, when flights reached their lowest point last year.
This story was originally published May 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
