The Colorado Springs Gazette final

Airport traffic takes off

Passenger numbers jump in April by 28.9% over the same month in 2021

BY RICH LADEN rich.laden@gazette.com

Colorado Springs Airport passenger numbers jumped by nearly 30% in April.

The Colorado Springs Airport saw a sizable jump in passengers last month, and airport officials expect that trend to continue into the summer despite higher airfares and other spiking travel costs.

In April, 87,295 travelers boarded planes out of the Colorado Springs Airport, a 28.9% increase over the 67,727 enplanements during the same month last year, according to a report released this week by airport officials that tracks monthly passenger traffic.

The report and historical airport figures also showed:

• Not only did last month’s passenger numbers increase on a year-overyear basis, but they climbed significantly — 48.5% — over the 58,774 travelers who flew out of the Colorado

Springs Airport in April 2019, a year before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Last month’s enplanements were the highest for any April since 87,420 in 2006.

• For the first four months of this year, enplanements totaled 311,299 — the most for any similar period since 328,050 passengers in 2001.

Credit a combination of factors for last month’s boost in air travel out of Colorado Springs, said Greg Phillips, the city’s aviation director, and Joe Nevill, the airport’s air service development manager.

Local travelers continue to embrace Southwest Airlines, the Dallas-based low-fare carrier that launched service in the Springs in March 2021, Phillips

said.

In April, Southwest flights accounted for nearly 46% of the number of passengers leaving the airport. United Airlines was next with a 26.5% share, followed by American with 17.6%; Frontier, 5.6%; and Delta, 4.4%.

“In April of last year, it was really just the first full month that Southwest was here,” Phillips said. “This is now a year later. Boy, I tell you, everybody knows that Southwest is in town.”

April’s passenger numbers included attendees to the 37th Space Symposium at The Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs, the annual gathering of defense and aerospace industry members hosted by the Springs-based Space Foundation that draws thousands from around the world.

Anecdotally, Phillips said officials were told by the Space Foundation that more Space Symposium participants flew into the Colorado Springs Airport for this year’s event than traveled through Denver International Airport.

Pent-up demand on the part of travelers two years after the pandemic’s onset also no doubt contributed to April’s strong passenger numbers, Phillips said.

“More and more people are just willing to say, ‘OK, I think that we’re past that now largely, and I’ve gone two years without really traveling and I want to travel,’” he said.

Airlines have told Colorado Springs Airport officials that they saw a noticeable change in attitude in March on the public’s part that translated into many people wanting to travel, Nevill said.

And based on airlines’ response to the stepped-up demand by the traveling public, Nevill and Phillips said they’re forecasting continued strong passenger number at the Colorado Springs Airport over the next few months.

Yes, airfares have jumped because of higher fuel costs, and hotel and rental car prices have increased. But people still want to travel, and airlines are positioning their aircraft to accommodate higher passenger loads — not just compared with last year, but over the same time before the pandemic, Nevill said.

For June, airlines serving the

Colorado Springs Airport have increased the number of seats they’ll offer by 27% over the same month in 2019, Nevill said. Southwest alone is making 17% more seats available from June through August than it did last year, he added.

Capacity this summer is up significantly over 2019 levels, Nevill said.

“We have a high demand this summer which we expect to create high numbers here at the airport.”

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2022-05-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

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The Gazette, Colorado Springs