Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix wrapped up its busiest tourism season on record this year, culminating with an unprecedented influx of visitors for the NCAA Men's Final Four hosted in Glendale. The festivities contributed to the airport's most bustling April, as traffic figures released by the city-owned Phoenix Sky Harbor showed a 6.2% hike in passenger volume from the same month last year. According to a May 29 report by the Phoenix Aviation Department, 4,526,096 passengers passed through the airport's terminals in April, as detailed in ABC15.
Delta Air Lines, keeping pace with the demand spurred by the athletic event, launched additional flights to Phoenix from North Carolina and Alabama, corresponding with the origins of some participating teams. April's passenger surge was noteworthy even though, having recorded over 5 million passengers in March, the airport had already noted its busiest month ever in its history. The overall count for 2019 was surpassed last year, with Sky Harbor steadily outperforming its previous annual metrics, as reported by The Business Journal.
Commercial flights which totaled 18,260 landings in April marked a 12.5% upswing from last year, with major carriers including American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Frontier Airlines all experiencing a rise in passenger counts for the month. International travel added to Sky Harbor's success, with a 17.8% surge in international passenger traffic in April year-over-year, tallying 266,436 jet-setters boarding flights from Phoenix.
With new nonstop flights inaugurated recently to key European destinations, such as Frankfurt, Germany, and Paris, France, the prediction is that travel figures will only climb higher. American Airlines anticipates approximately 3 million passengers across more than 26,000 departures this summer, a windfall echoed by Sophia Philis-Ortiz, American’s vice president of hub operations at Phoenix Sky Harbor. Philis-Ortiz, in a statement obtained by The Business Journal, expects more customers this upcoming season than the last. In light of this blossoming growth, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego has urged the Aviation Department to initiate the construction of an additional terminal, to be finalized before the current facilities hit their peak capacity.
