Sky Harbor, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport see increased traffic over Thanksgiving holiday
Dec 1, 2021, 4:45 AM
(File photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(File photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
PHOENIX — People who flew over the Thanksgiving holiday might’ve noticed more travelers as two Valley airports reported seeing increased passengers.
“We actually hit the record for the most passengers that traveled through Gateway Airport on Wednesday before Thanksgiving and then broke that record just a few days later on the Monday after the busy weekend,” Ryan Smith, director of communications for Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, told KTAR News 92.3 FM.
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was also busy over the Thanksgiving holiday travel period.
“On an average day, Sky Harbor sees about 120,000 passengers each day,” Greg Roybal, the airport’s public information officer said.
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“On some of those days during Thanksgiving, especially the day before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we exceeded that.”
The Transportation Security Administration won’t have the exact passenger numbers for both airports until a few more weeks.
Smith said preliminary passenger numbers fall in line with what Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport has been seeing over the last few months.
“We had the busiest months in the history of the airport in June, July and then again in September,” he said.
Smith added he expects the airport will stay busy throughout the holiday season.
Meanwhile, Roybal said Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has been bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels over the last few months.
“For September, which is the last month we have complete statistics, we were only down 4.6% from September 2019,” Roybal said.
“So that tells you that we were busy and we’ve been busy,” he continued. “And we expected to be busy over the Thanksgiving holiday, and by all accounts we were.”
