All four airports serving Los Angeles County experienced a decline in passenger counts in November, with Hollywood Burbank Airport hit the hardest.
Overall, 7.1 million passengers went through the gates at Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Hollywood Burbank and Long Beach airports in November, down 4.4% from the same month in 2024, according to data reported by the operating authorities of each airport.
That’s a bigger drop than October’s 3.4% decline, but smaller than the 5.7% decrease reported in September. Above all, though, it shows that the passenger slump at all four airports is lasting longer than many expected.
November’s passenger drop was exacerbated by the federal government shutdown that lasted until the second week of the month, resulting in shortages of air traffic controllers and delays at several airports. Thousands of flights nationwide were cancelled – 2,400 flights on just one day, Nov. 10 – according to air travel tracking site FlightAware. A sizable portion of the passengers on those flights chose not to fly at all.
Hollywood Burbank Airport was particularly hard hit, with a 13% slide in passengers in November compared to the same month a year earlier.
According to an airline-by-airline breakout of passengers, the drop of nearly 61,000 passengers for the month was overwhelmingly due to two airlines: Dania Beach, Florida-based Spirit Airlines Inc. and Houston-based Avelo Airlines Inc. Spirit Airlines has been cutting flights as filed for bankruptcy for a second time late last year following after a failed merger attempt with New York-based JetBlue Airways. And Avelo Airlines announced last year it was closing its West Coast hub at Burbank, exiting the airport entirely.
The problem for Hollywood Burbank Airport in the closing months of last year was very few added flights to offset the shedding of flights by Spirit and JetBlue.
The picture should brighten for Hollywood Burbank Airport this year as five airlines – Seattle-based Alaska Airlines Inc., Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air, Cottonwood, Utah-based Breeze Airways, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. and JetBlue – have previously announced a total of 11 added flight routes over the next eight months.
Los Angeles International Airport, meanwhile, remained mired in its passenger count doldrums in November. The total of 5.7 million passengers passing through the gate at the region’s largest airport was down 3.8% in November compared to the same month in 2024, with domestic passenger counts down 5% and international traffic down 1%.
As a result, the airport has been moving backwards in its attempt to recover to pre-pandemic travel levels, falling 15% short of its November 2019 tally. LAX is relatively unique among other major airports across the nation, which have all either surpassed or come within a whisker of pre-pandemic levels. LAX has suffered in part due to its lack of a single major airline hub; as airlines have restructured and consolidated their flight operations over the years, the airport has lost out to hub airports such as Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport (home to Delta Air Lines) and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (home to United Airlines Inc.). That means airlines tend to add flights in piecemeal fashion at LAX, not enough to offset consolidations to hub airports.
The other factor, of course, has been the ongoing construction at LAX, which has impacted both airline operations and passenger access. To avoid the hassles, many passengers have decided to use the outlying regional airports whenever possible.
Unlike in most previous months, in November, passenger counts at both Long Beach and Ontario were down compared to the same month in 2024. Long Beach passenger tallies fell by 6%, while Ontario was down just over 1%.
At Long Beach, Southwest is the dominant player, with more than 85% of all flights, which means as Southwest goes, so goes the entire airport. For much of last year, Southwest has faced challenges, including aircraft shortages and passenger backlash to policy changes such as ending free baggage check-in. After a brief stint in positive territory in October, Long Beach year-over-year passenger counts resumed their downward trajectory in November.
Ontario, meanwhile, has been in relatively unfamiliar territory the last three months. Through August, the airport had been on an impressive streak of 54 consecutive months of year-over-year passenger growth, fueled by aggressive marketing and the addition of international routes. But in the three months since then, the airport has seen slight year-over-year declines in passengers.
Nonetheless, Ontario International Airport Authority executives put out a relatively rosy holiday travel forecast, anticipating a 2% increase in passengers over the 18-day holiday period that wrapped up Jan. 4 when compared with the 2024 holiday travel season.
During the month of November, more than 268,000 tons of cargo were handled at the four airports, down 2.7% from the same month in 2024. About 98% of all this cargo moves through just two of these airports: LAX and Ontario. Both airports saw tonnage drops in the 2% range.
Ontario’s tonnage growth has flattened in recent months following a year-long surge after Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. received a major contract from the U.S. Postal Service to move air mail through that airport.
