Sky Harbor passenger and cargo numbers soar in February

PHOENIX — New statistics showed that Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport had more passengers and cargo this February compared to the same month last year.

The numbers, released by the city’s aviation department, showed that Sky Harbor had 108,000 more passengers and transported almost 3,400 more tons of cargo than February of last year.

Those were increases of 3.2 percent and 12.8 percent compared to last year.

The statistics were similar to January’s comparative numbers that saw increases of 2.7 percent and 14.2 percent in those same categories.

American Airlines saw the highest increase in the number of passengers in February with more than 90,500, while Great Lakes Aviation had the highest percentage increase of passengers with 63.3 percent.

Sky Harbor had a total of 3.46 million passengers in the month of February. This brought the airport’s total number of passengers for the fiscal year, which runs from July 2017 to June 2018, to 28.4 million.

In February, the airport also got approval from the city council to add a number of local restaurants to Terminal 3, soon to be named John S. McCain III Terminal, which was undergoing a $590 million remodel. All restaurants were set to be open by 2020.

According to a report done by Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, Sky Harbor contributes $12.3 billion to the state’s economy every year and supports 57,000 jobs.