Passenger traffic at
Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport ended 2022 up by more than 20%, but the level of activity is still down sharply from before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mitchell saw 5.45 million passengers last year, up from around 4.52 million or 20.4% in 2021. The increase comes despite a down December that included struggles and cancelled flights for Southwest Airlines, the largest contributor to Mitchell’s passenger traffic.
December’s traffic total was down 6.5% from 2021. It wasn’t the first monthly year-over-year dip since the start of the pandemic recovery – there were declines of less than a percent in July and November – but it was the largest.
Southwest, which saw nationwide challenges with its operations around Christmas, saw its passenger total down more than 12,400 from December 2021 to December 2022, a decrease of 8.1%. Other major airlines saw similar figures with American down more than 4,700 or 7.1% and United off almost 4,100 or 8.2%.
Another big contributor to the decline was Spirit Airlines, which saw its Mitchell passenger total for December drop from 44,400 to 17,979, a nearly 60% decline.
Delta and Frontier trended in the opposite direction with a December increase of 8.3% and 11.3% respectively.
For the year, Delta saw the strongest gains among the four large airlines at Mitchell with traffic up almost 36% from 2021. At 1.35 million, Delta’s Milwaukee passenger level was at 74% of its 2019 level, up from 55% in 2021.
United also saw its Milwaukee traffic up sharply with an almost 27% increase to 560,087. The total is almost at 90% of United’s 2019 Mitchell traffic. In 2021, the airline was at 71% of its pre-pandemic level.
American saw a 7.6% increase in Milwaukee passenger traffic last year and is now at 89% of its 2019 total. The airline was in the strongest position relative to before COVID with its 2021 total equaling 82% of 2019.
Among the four, Southwest saw the slowest growth at Mitchell with a 6.9% increase to 1.98 million passengers. While it retains the largest market share at Mitchell, the airline carried nearly 900,000 more passengers through the airport in 2019.
Southwest’s 2022 passenger traffic total was 69% of its pre-pandemic level, up from 65% in 2021.
Overall, Mitchell’s passenger traffic ended the year at 79% of its 2019 level, a difference of 1.45 million passengers. In 2021, the airport totaled roughly 66% of its pre-pandemic level.
