San Antonio International Airport News & Updates

[satx23]

Originally Posted by texboy

Holy Crap... October came within striking distance of 1MM.... INSANE. Numbers I definitely didn't expect to see. This continues to show in my opinion that SAT, when given the chance with more options and up-gauged capacity... it gets used.

In his presentation Wednesday, Saenz stated 2023 will probably be the 1st year over 11M pax. Nov and Dec will need to be 1.1-1.2M pax a month.

[texboy]

Originally Posted by satx23

In his presentation Wednesday, Saenz stated 2023 will probably be the 1st year over 11M pax. Nov and Dec will need to be 1.1-1.2M pax a month.

I'm assuming the airport would be privy to info from the airlines about the amount of travel they expect? I mean... the nearly 1MM pax is honestly shocking to for October... Can't say I'd be totally shocked if November/December see those kind of numbers now.

[JACKinBeantown]

Originally Posted by texboy

I'm assuming the airport would be privy to info from the airlines about the amount of travel they expect? I mean... the nearly 1MM pax is honestly shocking to for October... Can't say I'd be totally shocked if November/December see those kind of numbers now.

Terminal B was pretty crowded when I flew out on November 30.

[ILUVSAT]

Originally Posted by texboy

I'm assuming the airport would be privy to info from the airlines about the amount of travel they expect? I mean... the nearly 1MM pax is honestly shocking to for October... Can't say I'd be totally shocked if November/December see those kind of numbers now.

November & December are usually two of the "slowest" months of the aviation calendar. It would be quite a feat to approach 1 million pax during these months.

[Rynetwo]

Knowing nothing about how they count passengers, are these number skewed higher with all of the migrants being flown out of San Antonio? Or do they not count those seats in the totals?

[texboy]

Originally Posted by Rynetwo

Knowing nothing about how they count passengers, are these number skewed higher with all of the migrants being flown out of San Antonio? Or do they not count those seats in the totals?

Solid question. I would think they might be skewed higher, BUT, not sure what those totals are a month. I would imagine it wouldn't be THAT much of a difference.

[Keep-SA-Lame]

I believe chartered flights do not count towards airport passenger numbers, only scheduled commercial flights. Are the migrants flying commercial or charters? Or both? My guess is that if they're flying out of San Antonio they're flying commercial, which is the reason they're here in the first place, it's the closest large airport to the South Texas border. If they're on chartered flights there's no reason they couldn't fly out of Laredo or one of the Valley airports.

Side bar on Valley airports now that I'm thinking about it, it's crazy they have three commercial airports down there. Brownsville to Mission, the entire length of the Valley, is only about 60 miles, or the distance from Floresville to Boerne. Build one big one in Harlingen or something!

[texboy]

Originally Posted by Keep-SA-Lame

I believe chartered flights do not count towards airport passenger numbers, only scheduled commercial flights. Are the migrants flying commercial or charters? Or both? My guess is that if they're flying out of San Antonio they're flying commercial, which is the reason they're here in the first place, it's the closest large airport to the South Texas border. If they're on chartered flights there's no reason they couldn't fly out of Laredo or one of the Valley airports.

Side bar on Valley airports now that I'm thinking about it, it's crazy they have three commercial airports down there. Brownsville to Mission, the entire length of the Valley, is only about 60 miles, or the distance from Floresville to Boerne. Build one big one in Harlingen or something!

I know they are for sure taking at least some commercial flights.

And DITTO on that. It makes zero sense that they have 3 commercial airports down there.

[Schertz1]

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2023...ld-the-public/

[Onward]

Originally Posted by satx23

October 2023 Passenger Stats

Domestic Enplanements: 469,842
Domestic Deplanements: 466,809
Total Domestic Passengers: 936,651

International Enplanements: 26,819
International Deplanements: 26,340
Total International Passengers: 53,159

Total October 2023 Passengers: 989,810

https://flysanantonio.com/wp-content...-OCT-Stats.pdf

Pretty awesome numbers for October. Close to 100,000 more compared to October 2022.

[Onward]

Originally Posted by satx23

In his presentation Wednesday, Saenz stated 2023 will probably be the 1st year over 11M pax. Nov and Dec will need to be 1.1-1.2M pax a month.

Originally Posted by texboy

I'm assuming the airport would be privy to info from the airlines about the amount of travel they expect? I mean... the nearly 1MM pax is honestly shocking to for October... Can't say I'd be totally shocked if November/December see those kind of numbers now.

Originally Posted by ILUVSAT

November & December are usually two of the "slowest" months of the aviation calendar. It would be quite a feat to approach 1 million pax during these months.

While the numbers this year have been great, I think 11 million pax may be a bridge too far as well. Perhaps next year if trends continue. I'll take the numbers trending above 2019 finally as a big win though.

Stats from previous years

November
2019 854,152
2021 770,505
2022 856,336

December
2019 888,086
2021 763,606
2022 844,536

Even if we go optimistic and say both months are like October (up around 100,000) it still doesn't get us to the one million plus each month required.

Should we all take a guess now for the end of year numbers?
My guess is around 10.6 million for the year.

[Onward]

Originally Posted by Rynetwo

Knowing nothing about how they count passengers, are these number skewed higher with all of the migrants being flown out of San Antonio? Or do they not count those seats in the totals?

Yes it elevates the numbers. They count just like everybody else, as long as they're on scheduled passenger flights. Such as American, Delta, and United.

Originally Posted by texboy

Solid question. I would think they might be skewed higher, BUT, not sure what those totals are a month. I would imagine it wouldn't be THAT much of a difference.

Yeah that would take quite awhile going through the data. I'm sure the Airport knows though. I took a look through some random months and you can see enplanements are higher than deplanements rather often. The numbers start growing wider apart in 2021. While not nothing, I think the vast majority of the growth this year has been from locals. I'm guessing that was the question Rynetwo was getting at.

Here's a random month

July
2017 Enplanements: 401,070 Deplanements: 402,199
2018 Enplanements: 441,070 Deplanements: 439,026
2019 Enplanements: 456,600 Deplanements: 450,074
2020 Enplanements: 111,297 Deplanements: 109,133
2021 Enplanements: 369,472 Deplanements: 354,198
2022 Enplanements: 415,480 Deplanements: 395,015
2023 Enplanements: 469,788 Deplanements: 457,283

[Onward]

Originally Posted by Keep-SA-Lame

I believe chartered flights do not count towards airport passenger numbers, only scheduled commercial flights. Are the migrants flying commercial or charters? Or both? My guess is that if they're flying out of San Antonio they're flying commercial, which is the reason they're here in the first place, it's the closest large airport to the South Texas border. If they're on chartered flights there's no reason they couldn't fly out of Laredo or one of the Valley airports.

Side bar on Valley airports now that I'm thinking about it, it's crazy they have three commercial airports down there. Brownsville to Mission, the entire length of the Valley, is only about 60 miles, or the distance from Floresville to Boerne. Build one big one in Harlingen or something!

Correct charters don't count towards passenger numbers. They fly both. I fly often and Terminal B is full especially in the mornings. Thins out as the day goes by. It really depends on the day and time. Some flights I might notice a few other flights especially early morning ones I notice many more.

Yeah not sure about the charter front. iAero Airways runs a large operation out of SAT. They are the 737's with blue tails.

[satx23]

November 2023 Passenger Stats

Domestic Enplanements: 451,685
Domestic Deplanements: 436,040
Total Domestic Passengers: 887,725

International Enplanements: 27,896
International Deplanements: 27,805
Total International Passengers: 55,701

Total November 2023 Passengers: 943,426

https://flysanantonio.com/wp-content...-NOV-Stats.pdf

[texboy]

Originally Posted by satx23

November 2023 Passenger Stats

Domestic Enplanements: 451,685
Domestic Deplanements: 436,040
Total Domestic Passengers: 887,725

International Enplanements: 27,896
International Deplanements: 27,805
Total International Passengers: 55,701

Total November 2023 Passengers: 943,426

https://flysanantonio.com/wp-content...-NOV-Stats.pdf

Won't be the 11 million PAX year the Airport boss predicted, but definitely shaping up nicely. 10.7 or close to it seems very plausible.

[satx23]

2023 Q3 city-pair markets in the contiguous United States that average at least 10 passengers each day. All records are aggregated as directionless city pair markets. All traffic traveling in both directions is added together.

Los Angeles, CA (Metropolitan Area) 1237
New York City, NY (Metropolitan Area) 1188
Las Vegas, NV 1172
Washington, DC (Metropolitan Area) 1041
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX 975
Denver, CO 907
Chicago, IL 845
Orlando, FL 767
Atlanta, GA (Metropolitan Area) 644
Seattle, WA 547
Boston, MA (Metropolitan Area) 502
Miami, FL (Metropolitan Area) 493
Phoenix, AZ 489
San Francisco, CA (Metropolitan Area) 461
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN 365
San Diego, CA 349
El Paso, TX 325
Detroit, MI 317
Nashville, TN 311
Charlotte, NC 282
Salt Lake City, UT 282
Tampa, FL (Metropolitan Area) 252
Kansas City, MO 233
Houston, TX 231
Philadelphia, PA 229
Sacramento, CA 217
New Orleans, LA 211
St. Louis, MO 211
Portland, OR 192
Raleigh/Durham, NC 180
Indianapolis, IN 158
Oklahoma City, OK 136
Norfolk, VA (Metropolitan Area) 134
Colorado Springs, CO 131
Pittsburgh, PA 127
Albuquerque, NM 125
Columbus, OH 119
Cleveland, OH (Metropolitan Area) 107
Milwaukee, WI 102
Cincinnati, OH 99
Jacksonville, FL 96
Omaha, NE 96
Charleston, SC 94
Richmond, VA 87
Memphis, TN 86
Birmingham, AL 80
Louisville, KY 79
Boise, ID 76
Tulsa, OK 75
Reno, NV 74
Buffalo, NY 72
Hartford, CT 70
Tucson, AZ 70
Grand Rapids, MI 69
Pensacola, FL 65
Fresno, CA 63
Valparaiso, FL 62
Spokane, WA 62
Little Rock, AR 61
Savannah, GA 60
Des Moines, IA 56
Panama City, FL 55
Dayton, OH 55
Syracuse, NY 55
Fort Myers, FL 51
Portland, ME 51
Greenville/Spartanburg, SC 49
Amarillo, TX 49
Knoxville, TN 48
Lubbock, TX 47
Bozeman, MT 47
West Palm Beach/Palm Beach, FL 47
Columbia, SC 42
Rochester, NY 41
Greensboro/High Point, NC 40
Albany, NY 40
Fayetteville, NC 40
Wichita, KS 37
Huntsville, AL 36
Myrtle Beach, SC 35
Jackson/Vicksburg, MS 35
Madison, WI 33
Sarasota/Bradenton, FL 33
Fayetteville, AR 31
Midland/Odessa, TX 29
Harrisburg, PA 27
Palm Springs, CA 27
Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, IA 27
Eugene, OR 26
Gulfport/Biloxi, MS 26
Kalispell, MT 25
Springfield, MO 25
Jackson, WY 24
Lexington, KY 24
Montgomery, AL 23
Augusta, GA 23
Santa Barbara, CA 22
Asheville, NC 21
Salinas/Monterey, CA 20
Baton Rouge, LA 19
Fargo, ND 19
Rapid City, SD 19
Fort Wayne, IN 19
Harlingen/San Benito, TX 19
Appleton, WI 19
Chattanooga, TN 18
Burlington, VT 18
Pasco/Kennewick/Richland, WA 18
Sioux Falls, SD 18
Traverse City, MI 18
Key West, FL 17
Jacksonville/Camp Lejeune, NC 17
Billings, MT 17
Green Bay, WI 17
Wilmington, NC 17
Shreveport, LA 17
Durango, CO 16
Montrose/Delta, CO 15
South Bend, IN 15
Medford, OR 14
Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, PA 14
Bangor, ME 13
Grand Junction, CO 13
Minot, ND 13
Charleston/Dunbar, WV 12
Bend/Redmond, OR 12
Bakersfield, CA 12
Roanoke, VA 12
Mobile, AL 12
Aspen, CO 12
Missoula, MT 12
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA 12
Tallahassee, FL 12
Gainesville, FL 11
Paso Robles/San Luis Obispo, CA 11
Great Falls, MT 11
Bismarck/Mandan, ND 11
Quad Cities, IL (Metropolitan Area) 11
Peoria, IL 11
Santa Fe, NM 11
Bristol/Johnson City/Kingsport, TN 10
Columbus, GA 10
Daytona Beach, FL 10
Lafayette, LA 10

[texboy]

Sacramento, CA 217
Portland, OR 192
Raleigh/Durham, NC 180
Indianapolis, IN 158
Pittsburgh, PA 127
Columbus, OH 119
Cleveland, OH (Metropolitan Area) 107

All of these should have at minimum seasonal directs. But most could probably support partial weekly year round directs. SAT has already supported a Portland direct, and possibly SAC in the past.

[texboy]

SAT posted on Insta this morning they hit 10.7M in 2023. Great milestone for the airport, safe to say the pandemic is in the rearview mirror. December PAX should be somewhere near 1M, which would also be a record December for the airport.

[SAhometown]

Found this interesting..https://i.imgur.com/X0rTtwG.png

SAT 7th highest in seat increase YOY. This will add to record breaking numbers for 2024!

[jkill34]

Originally Posted by SAhometown

Found this interesting..https://i.imgur.com/X0rTtwG.png

SAT 7th highest in seat increase YOY. This will add to record breaking numbers for 2024!

Austin with a decline, is surprising IMO.