Southern California’s Ontario International Airport finished 2022 with its highest annual passenger volume since 2008.
Ontario International Airport (ONT) welcomed more than 5.7 million airline travelers in 2022, outpacing pre-pandemic 2019 by 2.8% as the popular Southern California gateway recorded its highest passenger volume since 2008.
At the same time, shipments of air cargo outpaced 2019 volume by nearly 9%, maintaining ONT’s position as a major commerce and logistics hub.
We experienced great demand for air travel through Ontario International in 2022 with passenger levels exceeding pre-pandemic levels for the entire calendar year,” said Atif Elkadi, chief executive officer, Ontario International Airport Authority (OIAA). “Our airline partners restored air services suspended because of the pandemic while adding new routes and increased flight frequencies to popular destinations, and passengers showed their preference for our hallmark customer-friendly experience.”
Ontario’s 2022 passenger volume was 27.6% greater than the 2021 total of 4.5 million and was the highest since 2008, when 6.2 million passenger flew into or out of the airport. Since ONT’s return to local control in 2016, passenger volumes are up nearly 36%.
Ontario also ranks among the fastest recovering airports in the U.S. after the severe disruption in global air travel during the early months of the pandemic.
That growth is expected to continue into the new year. Based on current airline schedules, ONT will have 6.7% more flights and 12.3% more available seats in the first quarter compared with the same period last year.
Meanwhile, Ontario International has fortified its role as a global air cargo center. For the year, freight and mail that moved through ONT totaled more than 850,000 tons, 8.9% higher than 2019 when the airport handled almost 782,000 tons of cargo.
Ontario ranks among the 10 largest cargo airports in North America, and according to a recent analysis by Oxford Economics, serves as the hub of a global supply chain network that generates $17.8 billion in economic activity.
