Recent growth at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport can be felt in several ways, but for Anthony Gilmer, director of marketing and air service development for the Louisville Regional Airport Authority, it’s the Kentucky Derby that puts it in perspective.
In previous years, he said, the extra flights and bigger planes landing in the week leading up to the first Saturday in May were a palpable departure from the rest of the year.
“If you come out here now and walk around, that’s a regular thing,” he said.
A key factor behind that change is the growth of the airport’s route offerings, including 37 nonstop destinations, up from 30 in early 2020.
Pushing past early pandemic passenger traffic lows, Louisville’s airport had its third busiest year in 2022, behind 2000 and 2019.
Passenger traffic last year was up 22% over 2021, a total of nearly 3.89 million travelers, airport data show.
The year to beat is 2019, which saw 4.24 million total passengers fly out or land in Louisville.
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Looking at early data, Gilmer is optimistic that 2023 could top the airport’s record. Capacity – the number of available seats – for the first quarter of this year is at 110% compared to first quarter 2019.
Should that trend hold and the seats get filled, coupled with a forecast of increased consumer travel demand, Gilmer thinks a banner year could be ahead.
“We have a real chance for 2023 being another record-breaking year,” he said.
Building on 2021’s growth
2022 was a year of continued build-back from the pandemic as well as expansion, Gilmer said.
Flight schedules that thinned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as fewer flights on the service to Atlanta on Delta Air Lines, continue to see capacity bounce back.
Gilmer said he’s looking forward this year to those schedules rebuilt fully to where they were pre-pandemic.
The airport also launched new routes in 2022, including a nonstop to Boston on American Airlines and a nonstop to San Francisco (scoring that route was a “big focal point,” he noted) on Breeze Airways.
That growth followed a busy 2021, in which the airport added two budget airlines (Spirit Airlines and Breeze Airways) and 14 routes.
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The addition of more ultra-low-cost carriers (seat count has gone from about 36,000 in 2019 to nearly 87,000 last year), coupled with new or expanded routes, are helping drive passenger numbers upward, airport officials say.
“There’s a lot more people in this region and in this market that can fly now that a couple of years ago probably couldn’t,” Gilmer said.
We have a real chance for 2023 being another record-breaking year.
Anthony Gilmer
Part of this passenger growth comes from attracting local customers and reducing what the industry calls “leakage,” when potential passengers in the airport’s region go to other airports to take advantage of lower prices or more desirable routes.
Most recent data comparing most of 2018 to the second half of 2021 show a leakage decrease from 18% to 8%, translating to about 100 people each day who are now choosing Louisville over other cities’ airports.
“We’re in a great spot as it pertains to leakage,” Gilmer said. “We couldn’t be happier with how much we’ve recaptured.”
What’s ahead at SDF
“We’re not done yet,” said Dan Mann, executive director of the airport authority, at a recent board meeting.
Adding flights to Seattle remains a primary priority, he said, also mentioning Toronto and Salt Lake City as future expansion targets.
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While aiming to grow passenger traffic, Mann also pointed to ongoing work on the multi-year, $400 million-plus modernization project “SDF Next” that will transform many customer-facing and behind-the-scenes spaces at the airport.
Already completed work includes renovated baggage claim bathrooms and expanded lot parking. Work continues on a $27.1 million geothermal system project, replacing passenger boarding bridges and updating the parking garage.
Gilmer acknowledged pressure points as traveler counts rise, such as added volume on security lines, though he pointed to the ongoing physical improvements as one way the airport is working to accommodate a growing customer base.
“It’s building for the future, building for growth,” he said.
Business reporter Matthew Glowicki can be reached at mglowicki@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4000or on Twitter @mattglo.
