John Wayne Airport had an 8% year-over-year hike in international travelers in June, its first monthly increase of the year.
About 32,000 international fliers passed through JWA’s gates last month compared with 29,600 in June 2014.
The airport’s year-to-year declines in international traffic ranged from drops of 5% to 35% in each of the first five months of 2015.
Southwest Airlines began flying to Puerto Vallarta on June 7, which accounted for some of the 8% increase. It was already flying to Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos.
The airport overall had about 849,000 passengers in June 2015, a 3.5% increase over the 821,000 in the same month last year, and commercial flights increased to 3,363, up about 1% from 3,326 in June 2014.
The three busiest airlines were Southwest, with about 382,000 passengers; United, with about 116,000 passengers; and American, with about 113,000 passengers.
About 72% of all John Wayne Airport passengers flew the three carriers.
Through the first six months of 2015 the airport had 4.8 million passengers—up about 5% from 2014’s year-to-date June total of 4.6 million.
