Colorado Springs Airport sees highest traffic in 22 years

Colorado Springs Airport saw more than a million passengers board planes in 2022, the highest amount of traffic in 22 years, the airport's annual report showed.

The tally of 1,071,826 enplanements, or travelers boarding planes out of the Colorado Springs Airport, was almost 15% higher than the year prior when Southwest had first joined Colorado Springs Airport in March 2021, the report showed. 

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"This was a big year for Colorado’s small airport,” Greg Phillips, the airport's director of aviation, said. “With the highest level of enplanements in over two decades, we are bullish on even more growth ahead for 2023 and beyond.”

The blockbuster year came even as Southwest's operations experienced a string of snafus in December, initially caused by adverse weather and exacerbated by other factors, including Southwest's point-to-point logistics model that enables the company to offer competitive fares, airport officials said.

For the month, 7% of flights at the airport were canceled instead of the usual 2%. Southwest's 115 canceled flights accounted for over 80% of cancellations at the airport during the month, Joe Nevill, the airport's air service development manager, said.

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Enplanements were down in December by 8.5% compared to December 2021. Frontier's absence from the Colorado Springs Airport since early November contributed to the lower enplanement numbers for December.

Enplanements in December, however, were up 12% from December 2019, a benchmark year prior to the onset of the pandemic.

For all of 2022, enplanements were up 27% over 2019.

"Thanks to our airline and industry partners, our Pikes Peak Region customers and community colleagues and our entire Colorado Springs Airport (COS) team for an outstanding year!" Nevill wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Colorado Springs also experienced increased offerings when it came to the number of seats available throughout 2022, up 4.4% from the year prior. Not only were more seats available but passengers filled them. Load factor, or the measurement of the fullness of flights, increased 6.9% compared to 2021.

Colorado Springs saw more than 2.1 million people walk through its terminal last year and officials are optimistic 2023 will be another busy year for the airport as January TSA volumes were ahead of last year's, an early indicator of a stronger performance for the month.

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