After seeing more than 50% fewer passengers in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ontario International Airport experienced a silver lining in the form of a near 20% increase in commercial freight.
The Inland Empire airport was No. 1 in the continental U.S. for growth in air cargo in 2020, and second only to Ted Stevens Anchorage Airport in Alaska for air freight tonnage growth among all states.
“Working closely with our freight partners, we not only withstood the surge in e-commerce shipments early in the year, we ramped up quickly to manage double-digit increases in commercial freight volume as Californians hunkered down at home and shopped online for vital household supplies,” Mark Thorpe, the airport’s CEO, said in a prepared statement.
The 2020 statistics, released last week, are two sides of the same coin. As for 2021 and beyond, the future of passenger travel remains up in the air.
ONT processed about 900,000 tons of commercial freight — 18.2% more than 2019. Also, mail shipments increased 17%, amounting to 25,000 tons in 2020.
However, passenger traffic dropped 54% year-over-year. The numbers fell from 5.5 million in 2019 to about 2.5 million in 2020.
“The purpose of the airport is to move people around and connect our country to the rest of the world. The impact on the passenger side was extreme,” said Steve Lambert, Ontario Airport spokesman, on Monday, Jan. 18.
The fallout of COVID-19, from business shutdowns to people fearful of exposure to the virus on airplanes to cancellation of nearly all international flights since March, was unlike anything the industry has experienced.
Global air travel dropped 60% to 67% in 2020, devastating the airlines and impacting local airports, with travel industry businesses taking huge hits. “The pandemic and its consequences wiped out 21 years of global passenger traffic growth in a matter of months, reducing traffic this year (2020) to levels last seen in 1999,” according to Cirium, a travel data and analytics company.
Cirium reported about 2.9 trillion global revenue passenger kilometers were recorded in 2020, as compared to 8.7 million in 2019.
“2020 was the worst year ever in the airline industry, nothing even comes close,” said Brett Snyder, founder and editor of CrankyFlier.com, an aviation blog based in the South Bay. Even compared to travel shut downs after 9/11, “the impact on the industry barely registers compared to what happened in 2020,” Snyder said.
But ONT fared better than most Southern California airports, Snyder said. That’s because since the airport was taken over by the city of Ontario and the county of San Bernardino in November 2016, it lowered prices for airlines and increased its freight footprint.
Since more than a 90% drop in April, the passenger count was on the rise until December, when the second virus surge hit, dropping passenger counts by 63% that month.
Some airlines returned flights in the fall and announced additional flights for early 2021. ONT is counting on Hawaiian Airlines new service to Oahu starting March 17. The airport has had success with flights to Sacramento, Las Vegas and Northern California, and flights are expected to depart from ONT to Chicago and Houston in early spring.
The airport added a COVID-19 testing site in Parking Lot 3 before Thanksgiving, in part to accommodate the upcoming Hawaiian Airline flights. Hawaii requires proof of a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival. No test is required upon return to the U.S., Snyder said.
Passengers returning from Mexico will soon be required to test for the virus before they return to the U.S., Snyder said.
He said that may put a dent in travel to Mexico, one of ONT’s few open international destinations. Volaris Airlines flies from Ontario to Mexico City. Alaska Airlines will cut back flights to Mexico starting in March from other airports, Snyder said.
More people may opt to fly to Hawaii, which has accepted travelers since Oct. 15 with the proof of a test, instead of requiring a quarantine upon arrival.
The future of air travel depends on the when people feel comfortable flying again, Snyder said.
“Ultimately, it will require the vaccine to have better distribution,” he added. “And it will require people to have the mental ability to get on an airplane.”