Passenger traffic at Tulsa International Airport has officially returned and surpassed pre-pandemic levels last month. Previous months had seen passenger traffic recovery hanging steadily around 95%. But July was the first month to officially soar past 2019 numbers, enabling the airport to reach such a milestone much quicker than the rest of the US airports.According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), as recently as June 2022, the average passenger traffic recovery in the US was at 89%. The rapid growth at Tulsa Airport can be attributed to new non-stop routes and leisure and corporate travel returning to the Tulsa market. Andrew Pierini, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, celebrated by commenting:

“Seeing our passenger numbers above 2019 levels is an incredibly exciting accomplishment for Tulsa. “The robust recovery of our passenger traffic along with the increased number of nonstop destinations at TUL is a testament to the strength of the Tulsa market and we look forward to continued growth in the months ahead.”

July's activity report

For the month of July, Tulsa Airport received approximately 286,882 passengers compared to 286,721 in July 2019. Besides topping the pre-pandemic numbers, July's passenger activity grew 10.78% compared to June's passenger traffic of 275,465. And from the first seven months of this year, the airport welcomed over 1.6 million passengers, a 31.26% jump from last year.

Breeze Airways Airbus A220-300
Photo: Airbus.

Tulsa Airport is currently home to 12 scheduled passenger carriers, including Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Breeze Airways, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and more. The airport is also home to several charter carriers, all of which contributed to the 2,809 air carrier operations for July. Though impressive, the numbers faltered slightly compared to 2,822 from the same month last year as airlines today are frequently canceling flights to stabilize operations.

Stormy weather has also been a consistent contributing factor in forcing flight cancelations, but the numbers could pick up soon as six airlines plan to launch new routes from Tulsa. Passengers now have access to 26 non-stop destinations outbound from Tulsa Airport, which is the most significant number of non-stop routes in the airport's history.

Plenty of cargo

Tulsa Airport currently houses a small handful of cargo operations from American Airlines Cargo, DHL, FedEx, Southwest Airlines Cargo, UPS, United Airlines Cargo, and the USPS. Despite the shortlist, the airport handled approximately 10.2 million pounds of cargo. Unfortunately, the number was a 2.32% fall from the 10.44 million pounds handled in the same month last year. It also fell from the 10.8 million pounds of freight handled the previous month.

Given the current economic disruptions in the global supply, the numbers themselves still prove impressive regardless, and similar to passenger statistics, they could rise back up within the next month. An Antonov Airlines AN-124 arrived in Tulsa from Germany recently, marking the Ukrainian-based cargo aircraft's first flight since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began. While a flight plan has not yet been filed for its next journey, the aircraft was fully loaded and contributed to the cargo statistics for Tulsa Airport. And it will continue to contribute further once it gets loaded for its next leg of the flight.

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