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Ontario International Airport: November another high-flying month
Southern California’s Ontario International Airport (ONT) continued to attract more air travelers in November as total passenger volume rose by 10%, the fifth straight month of double-digit growth. For the year, ONT has welcomed more than 5 million customers.
Passenger volume in November topped 501,000, with 475,000 domestic travelers and 26,000 international passengers – increases of 10.1% and 8.8%, respectively, over the same month last year. November was also the third month of 2019 in which the number of passengers who flew through ONT totaled more than a half-million.
From January through November, more than 5 million passengers arrived and departed ONT, an increase of 8.4% over the same period of 2018. Of those, nearly 4.8 million were domestic fliers while almost 275,000 were international travelers, increases of 7.2% and 35%, respectively.
The November report comes just two weeks after ONT earned the designation as the fastest growing airport in the U.S. for the second year in a row by Global Traveler, a leading industry publication geared to frequent business and luxury travelers. Ontario also holds the designation of favorite alternative airport in the U.S., according to popular web publication Trazee Travel.
“We continued to see robust passenger gains in the run-up to the Thanksgiving and winter holidays, showing that Ontario is an attractive destination airport, especially at times when other airports can be congested and the travel experience stressful,” said Mark Thorpe, chief executive officer of the Ontario International Airport Authority. “Ontario has quickly made a name for itself as an appealing gateway to Southern California, offering first-rate facilities and services along with a hassle-free customer experience.”
Last week, Frontier Airlines announced a significant expansion of service through ONT adding nonstop flights to Newark, Miami and Las Vegas beginning in April, with new international routes to El Salvador in May and Guatemala in June. With the new flights, air travelers will be able to reach more than two dozen destinations via nonstop service from ONT. Frontier currently flies to its home base in Denver, Austin and Orlando from Terminal 2.
Shipments of commercial freight also continued to grow by more than 5% to 66,000 tons in November, while mail volume declined almost 26%. Overall, cargo increased 4.2% for the month.
From January through November, cargo volume increased 2.5% to almost 700,000 tons based largely on gains in commercial freight of 3.6%. For the year, mail shipments decreased 23% compared to 2018.