November travel keeps Colorado Springs Airport on pace to see its highest year of traffic in decades

Jessica Van Dyne, The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
·2 min read

Dec. 15—November stacked on another month of busy airport traffic, putting the Colorado Springs Airport on track for its busiest year in two decades, according to airport data.

The number of enplanements, or travelers boarding planes out of the Colorado Springs Airport, reached 88,526 for the month, up 23.9% from 2019, a benchmark year for the airport with the addition of Southwest Airlines and prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, airport data showed. The numbers, though, were slightly behind November 2021 by 1.5%.

That slight decrease could stem from the number of available seats among the airlines serving Colorado Springs Airport falling 4.5% from last year. Airport staff said that was primarily due to the departure of Frontier Airlines from the airport in early November. But for the year, seats were up 5.4% compared with 2021, data showed.

"As we come close to the end of the year, November traffic showcases the increasing traffic trends we've seen in 2022 and we're looking forward to 2023," Greg Phillips, the city's aviation director, said in a news release.

Colorado Springs Airport has seen 1.9 million travelers come through its hallways this year; it is set to see its highest year of traffic since 2000, airport data show.

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Load factor, which measures how full each flight was, increased 2.5% from November last year. The airports also has seen higher load factors for the year so far, with a 7.8% increase compared to 2021. Staffers said they expect to see that trend continue and increase in 2023.

"It has been a good year for the Colorado Springs Airport," Phillips said during this week's Airport Advisory Committee meeting.

The airport will continue to offer its annual holiday parking promotion of $4 a day for long-term parking from Wednesday to Jan. 2.