Oakland's gateway to the world is seeing a marked uptick in globetrotters, as the local airport reports a whopping 42 percent surge in international passenger traffic this January over last year. The numbers from Oakland International Airport (OAK) are in, with the stats showing 839,381 total passengers moving through the terminals in the first month of 2024, translating to a 2.4 percent increase from January of the previous year, per the Oakland International Airport's announcement.
According to a release from the Port of Oakland, "International passenger traffic was strong at OAK in January, reflecting the increased levels of service from our international carriers," Craig Simon, Interim Director of Aviation at the Port of Oakland, stated, pointing to the debut of Avianca Airlines' seasonal service to San Salvador as a heavy hitter in their winter lineup, along with a strong showing from Volaris slinging travelers to multiple Mexican hotspots. Simon expressed his gratitude towards those who flew out of OAK, particularly those who leveraged their international nonstop services.
It wasn't only the international flights that got a bump – overall traffic is on an incline, too. January saw 402,504 passengers depart from OAK, with a notable 63,481 making connections there; this pulses in sync with the overarching trend, considering the airport's total passenger count for last year ticked upwards by 0.8 percent compared to 2022, based on data from the same announcement.
A deeper dive into the figures reveals that 29,764 international passengers arrived at OAK in January alone, marking a titanic 42.1 percent jump from January 2023 and a 10.3 percent month-to-month increase from December 2023, when 26,988 international passengers arrived, a reflection of Avianca's full month of service to San Salvador, and Volaris's amped-up routes to Mexico coinciding with the tail end of the winter holiday season, the recent addition to the airport's offerings has taken wing and shows no sign of slowing down, noted in the release from the Port of Oakland.
Yet, it wasn't clear skies across the board. The airport experienced a slight decline in air cargo, with 2 million pounds (or roughly 38.6 million kilograms) being transported in January, a minor downturn of 1.3 percent in a year-over-year comparison. This suggests that while more passengers may be flocking to OAK to catch flights, the amount of goods being shipped through has hit a bit of turbulence.
