San Jose Airport passenger trips cruise to higher levels in July

SAN JOSE — San Jose International Airport soared to its fourth straight month of handling at least 1 million passengers as it battles to escape its coronavirus-spawned economic maladies.

The South Bay aviation hub accommodated nearly 1.15 million passengers in July, which was 1.7% higher than the number of passenger trips at the airport during the same month in 2022.

Perhaps the most encouraging measure of improvement is that the number of passengers who transited through San Jose Airport year to date has soared far beyond the activity over the same seven months in 2022.

Over the first seven months of 2023, passenger trips are about 13% higher than the activity during the comparable period last year, the airport stated.

“We are very pleased to see continued traffic growth this summer,” said Keonnis Taylor, a spokesperson for San Jose International Airport.

Yet while the current travel trends are encouraging, San Jose Airport remains well below the all-time record heights it achieved prior to the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020.

In 2019, San Jose accommodated 15.65 million passengers or an average of 1.3 million passengers a month.

Over the one-year period that ended in July, an estimated 12.15 million passengers — which equates to 1.01 million a month — transited through SJC.

That means over the most recent one-year period, San Jose Airport passenger trips are running 22.3% below the total for the calendar year 2019, which was the final full year before the business lockdowns began.

Bay Area airports have recuperated at a sluggish pace from the economic ills triggered by the coronavirus.

Oakland International and San Francisco International, like San Jose Airport, remain well below their pre-COVID passenger activity peaks. But passenger trips have improved steadily at both San Francisco and Oakland airports so far in 2023.

The tech sector is still slow to resume travel at its pre-coronavirus pace. Business travel is a vital source of trips for all three Bay Area airports.

Despite the challenges, San Jose Airport continues to chart an upward path, as shown by the travel center’s passenger activity so far in 2023.

Plus, airport officials note airlines are adding more trips to serve San Jose. Notably, Spirit Airlines launched its first flights out of San Jose this year while ZipAir initiated nonstop flights to Tokyo.

“Bay Area travelers continue to appreciate the simple, convenient airport experience that SJC provides,” Taylor said.