Behind strong spring break, Milwaukee airport sees strong passenger totals in March, first quarter

Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport continued its strong start to 2024 as passenger traffic continued to rise.

That’s due to what an airport official said was very strong traffic to international destinations during spring break. The airport also saw a continued increase in available destinations or the restoration of service that was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Passenger traffic from January through March, the most recent available data, showed a 12.4% increase from the first quarter of 2023 – 1,356,532 passengers to 1,519,883 in this year’s first three months. March, when spring break travel mainly occurs, fared even better at a 14.05% increase from last year’s March – 603,547 passengers, up from 529,181.

“That’s certainly great news that there’s about (74,000) more passengers that chose the Milwaukee airport in March,” said Harold Mester, director of public affairs and marketing at the airport. “Some of that is due to the capacity additions that airlines added. When there’s more seats available for sale, there’s more tickets to be added.”

Mester attributed March’s bump to an enthusiastic spring break travel season, with a roughly 19% increase in international passengers. That was likely a record for the airport, with over 26,000 international spring break flights, he said.

The interest showed too, with airport officials at one point notifying travelers that parking lots were near capacity during the spring break travel season.

Flights to Cancun seemed to fare particularly well as Sun Country flew daily flights there at the peak of spring break, along with frequent flights from Apple Vacations and Funjet Vacations, he said.

“I think that was the first time we had modern daily flights to Cancun,” he said.

March also was the strongest month of the year so far, with 603,547 total enplanements and deplanements, compared to 476,547 in February and 439,354 in January.

The strong start to the year also reflected what Mester described as the airport reaching “the final stages from the rebound” of COVID-19. At that point, some flights were nixed as travel cut back.

He said markets like Milwaukee’s, which he described as a “middle-sized market,” have now started to see restoration of flights that were nixed during the pandemic. Initially, airlines focused on larger markets.

Now the airport has seen flights to destinations like Kansas City resume last summer, after 2023’s spring break, and begin to factor into the latest year’s travel statistics. Additionally, Mester said that some airlines like United are flying larger aircraft to some destinations and Delta has increased frequencies, however those could be seasonal changes.

In some cases, that could mean an aircraft that seats about 130 to now using an aircraft that can seat 180.

“Eventually we’re going to have to start comparing our stats year over year,” Mester said. “This was certainly a big March for us.”

While passengers continue to rise, cargo has not followed suit.

For the year, air freight is down 5.2% from last year’s first quarter and 7.48% in March. Mester said they are looking for “long term growth” in that category in the future.

In early March, he told the Journal Sentinel that the airport is in lease negotiations for the 440th Airlift Wing along the airport’s southern airfield to redevelop that into a cargo-specific area. That could help relieve pressure from Chicago O’Hare International Airport by enticing more air freight in Milwaukee, he said at that time.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Spring break travel fuels strong start to passenger traffic at Milwaukee airport