Passengers flocking to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in record numbers in 2023

PHOENIX — Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport has set a new record for commercial passenger activity, welcoming 1.92 million travellers in fiscal year 2023, a 5.6% increase year-over-year.

The 2023 high-water mark is the second straight year in which the airport set record passenger totals.

“The growth of Gateway Airport over the past few years has been phenomenal,” Apache Junction Mayor Chip Wilson, Chairman of the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Authority (PMGAA) Board of Directors said. “The airport’s continued growth is providing tremendous economic benefit for the entire greater Phoenix region. We look forward to welcoming even more sun-seeking visitors through the Airport this year.”

During the past year, Gateway Airport opened several new food and beverage concessions to provide more options for the growing number of air travelers choosing the airport.

A new Macayo’s Mexican Food restaurant opened between gates 4 and 5, and two new Infusion Coffee and Tea Crafters locations opened, one in the gate area and one in baggage claim. The airport is currently constructing a five-gate, 30,000 square-foot terminal addition and an enclosed pedestrian walkway connecting the airline ticket counters to the TSA security screening checkpoint.

Both projects will be complete in early 2024, just in time for the busy spring travel rush.

Service options continue to expand. Allegiant Air recently announced new nonstop service to Portland, Oregon, beginning in November. Allegiant Air now has 47 non-stop destinations at the airport.

An airport has been at the location of the current Phoenix-Gateway Airport since 1941 when Higley Field was born.

It was renamed Williams Field in 1942 in honor of Sierra Vista, Arizona-born 1st Lt. Charles Linton Williams, a U.S. Army Air Corps aviator who was killed when he crashed into the Pacific Ocean while serving in Hawaii. Williams Field was acquired by the U.S. military and renamed Williams Air Base in 1948 and was the first jet-training base in the U.S. military.

Williams Air Force Base closed in 1993. In 2004, the first commercial airline traffic was initiated. In 2007, the airport authority changed the facility’s name to Phoenix–Mesa Gateway Airport.

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