CLT airport takes a hit in passenger counts, revenue during pandemic. How bad was it?
Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Friday revealed how COVID-19 crippled passenger counts and revenues, and how the airport survived the pandemic better than most.
Passenger numbers in 2020 plummeted nearly 46% to 27.2 million from 50.2 million in 2019, according to a report by the airport titled “A Year of Resiliency: 2020 Report of Achievement.”
The number of local flyers who began their trips at CLT fell about 58%, from 7.7 million in 2019 to 3.2 million in 2020, according to the airport.
And passengers boarding international flights at CLT fell about 57 percent, from 141,277 in 2019 to 60,293 in 2020, the report shows.
“At one point in 2020, more than 30 countries had banned U.S. travelers, including the Bahamas and the European Union’s 27 countries,” according to the report.
CLT passenger traffic bottomed out in April 2020, the first full month of the pandemic, officials said. Only 340,265 passengers flew from CLT that month, 92% fewer than April 2019, according to the report.
Business travel sank
Business travelers represented the biggest decline, falling from 40% of CLT passengers in 2019 to 25% in 2020, officials said.
COVID in 2020 caused the lowest number of “aircraft movements in more than 20 years” at CLT, officials said in the report.
“Overall, aircraft operations logged 397,983 departures and arrivals in 2020 compared to 578,263 in 2019, a 31 percent drop,” according to the report.
American Airlines adds flights
Despite fewer passengers at CLT, airlines still added flights from the airport in 2020.
American Airlines began service to Appleton, Wis.; Bozeman, Mont.; Jackson Hole, Wyo.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Williamsport, Pa.; and Montrose-Telluride, Colo.
Southwest Airlines started flights to Denver, St. Louis and Phoenix.
By year’s end, CLT had nonstop service to 179 locations, including 35 international destinations and three to U.S. territories, according to the report.
Cargo stays strong despite dip
Cargo also fell in 2020, although only by 5%, according to airport data released on Friday.
Cargo “was the big winner of 2020,” officials said in the report, with 174,913 tons of goods handled through CLT compared with 184,449 tons in 2019, a 5% drop.
Officials said cargo held steady because of increased online demand for consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment. “By summer 2020, many airlines had expanded their cargo-only operations,” according to the report.
Steep revenue decline
Concessions at CLT in 2020 were a different story, falling about 49% from $70.6 million in 2019 to $36.3 million in 2020, officials said.
Parking, “typically the largest revenue source,” plummeted by 62%, from $65.4 million in 2019 to $24.8 million in 2020, according to officials.
No surprise, then, that according to the report, overall airport revenues dropped just over 19% from $268.2 million in 2019 to $216 million in 2020.
Surviving COVID
Haley Gentry, acting aviation director at CLT, said various moves by the airport during the pandemic left Charlotte Douglas better off than most U.S. airports.
“When revenue dried up, we had to be creative and look at things differently,” she said in the report. “We cut our budget, delayed some capital projects and concentrated our efforts on keeping our passengers and employees safe.
“It paid off in the end,” she said. “CLT is among the fastest airports in the country to recover and remains one of the most cost efficient and busiest hubs in the world.”
