SAN JOSE — San Jose International Airport has extended its rebound from coronavirus-spawned economic woes by handling more than 1 million passengers in June, the air travel facility reported on Tuesday.
The South Bay aviation hub handled 1.07 million passengers at the start of the summer travel season, marking the second straight month the airport’s passenger activity topped the million mark.
In May, San Jose International Airport handled 1.01 million passengers, according to aviation reports released by the airport.
“Exceeding the one million passenger mark for the second month in a row shows San Jose airport is well on its way to recovery after two challenging years during the pandemic,” said Judy Ross, the city’s assistant director of aviation.
The last time the airport handled at least 1 million passengers for two straight months was January and February of 2020, which represented the final two months before the onset of government-orchestrated business shutdowns to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
Passenger activity has increased for five consecutive months, a winning streak that began in February of this year, this new organization’s analysis of the airport’s flight statistics shows.
The passenger totals for June 2022 are 41.9% higher than the number of passengers who transited through the airport in June 2021, San Jose aviation reports show.
Separately, Oakland International Airport recently reported that it has topped the million mark for the first time since before the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Oakland’s airport in June handled 1.06 million passengers.
The million mark suggests that both the San Jose and Oakland airports have begun to recuperate from their economic maladies linked to the deadly bug.
Despite the upswing, all three Bay Area airports remain below the record heights of passenger activity to which they had soared prior to the onset of the coronavirus.
Oakland International’s latest passenger totals were 7% below the December 2019 total of 1.14 million passengers. Oakland’s 1.06 million passengers from June were also 13.8% below the all-time high for the airport of 1.23 million passengers handled in July 2019.
San Jose International’s 1.07 million passengers in June were 1.1% below the pre-COVID total of slightly more than 1.08 million passengers for the airport in February 2020.
San Francisco International Airport had 3.68 million passengers in May, which was an increase of 111.8% from the same month the year before. The May numbers, however, were 1.9% below the 3.75 million passengers that the San Francisco airport handled in February 2020, the month before the business shutdowns began.
Over the one-year period that ended in June, the San Jose airport handled 9.81 million passengers. That’s slightly higher than the nearly 9.8 million passengers who transited through the airport in the calendar year 2015.
The recent 12-month total, however, is also 37.5% below the all-time annual record established in 2019 of 15.8 million passengers who traveled through San Jose’s airport.
“San Jose airport is up to 9.8 million passengers in the last 12 months, a 132.2% increase over the year before, a great sign for things to come,” Ross said.
