OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 3: Passengers are photographed in Terminal 1 of the Oakland International Airport on Thursday, June 3, 2021, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
OAKLAND — Oakland International Airport passenger traffic jumped in March, a sign that the East Bay aviation hub continues to recuperate from its coronavirus-spawned economic and travel ailments.
The East Bay airport handled slightly more than 912,900 passengers in March, the highest monthly level since November 2022, according to airport officials.
The passenger activity at Oakland Airport in March was 9.9% higher than the number of passengers that passed through the facility during the same month in 2022, the airport reported.
Over the most recent one-year period that ended in March, Oakland International Airport handled 11.58 million passengers. That was an improvement over the total for the 2022 calendar year when 11.5 million passengers traveled through Oakland Airport.
“Travel over the spring break period was strong this year, building significantly from February to March,” said Craig Simon, the Port of Oakland’s acting aviation director.
Despite the improvement, Oakland Airport remains far below its pre-coronavirus levels.
Yet the East Bay airport isn’t alone in that shortfall. Both San Jose International Airport and San Francisco International Airport also remain stuck at an altitude that’s well short of the heady heights they reached before the coronavirus outbreak in early 2020.
The air traveler totals at Oakland Airport for the most recent 12 months that ended in March were 13.4% below the passenger levels achieved in 2019 when the airport accommodated 13.38 million passengers. That was the final year before the onset of wide-ranging business shutdowns began in March 2020.
Oakland Airport’s all-time best year occurred in 2018 when the aviation hub handled 13.59 million passengers.
Officials at the East Bay air travel center are confident that activity will continue to improve in the coming months.
“We anticipate that strong demand will continue into the summer as new flights are offered to New York/Newark, Philadelphia, and Dallas/Fort Worth on Spirit Airlines,” Simon said.
Originally published at George Avalos