ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s busiest airport had a record-breaking 47 million passengers passing through it in 2018.
Orlando International Airport officials said this week that the 47.7 million passengers last year marked an almost a 7 percent increase over 2017.
The overwhelming majority of those passengers, or 41 million people, were traveling domestically, which was up more than 6 percent from the previous year.
The airport had 6.6 million international travelers, an increase of more than 11 percent.
The Orlando airport now flies to 150 non-stop domestic and international destinations.
“To help us reach this passenger milestone, during the past year, we actively engaged our airport stakeholders, the community and employees to better utilize our resources to meet the demands of our growing traveling public,” says Phil Brown, Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority. “It is this continued spirit of cooperation that has set Orlando International apart from other airports in customer service, technology and destinations offered.”
Meanwhile, Tampa International also had a busy 2018.
Tampa International Airport served a record 2,192,602 passengers in March of 2018, making it the busiest single month in Airport history.
The record beat the previous high set in March 2017 by 213,358 passengers – a 10.8 percent jump – and wraps up a busy first six months of fiscal year 2018.
Since the fiscal year began on Oct. 1, TPA has served 10,761,239 passengers, jumping 953,684 passengers, or 9.7 percent over the same period the previous year.
The strong passenger numbers were propelled by both domestic and international passenger growth. International passenger travel was up 12.3 percent while domestic was up 9.6 percent.
Frontier Airlines was TPA’s fastest growing carrier, seeing 116.7 percent growth, and more than doubling its total number of passengers to 683,776 during this period. Spirit Airlines saw 45.5 percent growth, and served 845,942 passengers. Southwest Airlines, TPA’s largest carrier, grew 4.3 percent – serving 3,543,819 passengers.
Airlines at Tampa International Airport added 22 routes during this period, including 12 aboard Frontier and six aboard Spirit. Southwest added nonstop flights to San Diego while Delta added new service to Salt Lake City, helping bolster TPA’s service to the west coast. TPA also added a new airline, Air Transat, with new seasonal service to Montreal and Toronto.
