Southern California visitors appear to have avoided Los Angeles International Airport if they could in visiting the region this summer.
While visitors to Los Angeles and the rest of the Southland were up, traffic at the region’s biggest airport was down during the summer.
“Burbank, John Wayne Airport and Ontario could be having an influence on that,” said Eric Maryanov, owner of All-Travel.com, a Los Angeles-based travel agency. “If you were a traveler and you had direct service to an airport closer to your destination, why bother going to LAX?”
Domestic travel to LAX fell 3.4% in June and 3.1% in July compared with the same months a year earlier, according to Los Angeles World Airports, which runs the airport and Ontario International Airport.
Ontario saw a 4.4% increase in July. Long Beach Airport rose 6.3%. Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport was up 8.1% for June, the latest numbers available.
John Wayne saw a 3.3% rise in passengers in July and was up 4% in June.
“June and July set records for passenger levels at the airport,” said Alan Murphy, John Wayne’s director.
Traffic was up 3.2% in August, according to the airport.
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John Wayne’s Murphy: “June and July set records for passenger levels” |
In all, more than 2.6 million passengers traveled through John Wayne this summer, 100,000 more than in 2004, according to airport officials.
One reason for the drop at LAX: fewer flights coming in.
“Domestic flights to LAX have been reduced due to the increase in fuel prices,” said Nancy Castles, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles World Airports. “That has helped the airlines ensure there are more people per plane, but it’s reduced the number of seats available.”
Add to that the strong presence of discount carriers JetBlue Airways Corp. and Southwest Airlines Co. at Long Beach and Burbank.
John Wayne likely benefited from travelers visiting Disneyland for the park’s 50th anniversary.
In late July, Anaheim’s hotels were running 94% full, thanks to the visitor boom at Disneyland and Walt Disney Co.’s marketing of the anniversary. The hotels were about 10% fuller than a year earlier.
Hotel occupancy in Los Angeles County reached 81.5% in July, up from 78.5% a year earlier, according to Smith Travel Research. June occupancy also was up from a year earlier.
“I can’t tell if they’re flying to another airport and driving in, but I do know that a higher percentage of visitors are traveling by car,” said David Sheatsley, vice president of research for L.A. Inc., the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. “We haven’t really seen an impact of higher gas prices on that.”
Potkewitz is a staff writer with the Los Angeles Business Journal.
