CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland Hopkins International Airport continues to rebound from the loss of its United Airlines hub, drawing nearly 4 percent more passengers in 2016 than the year before.
The airport served 8.42 million travelers in 2016, an increase of 3.95 percent over 2015.
The number is still lower than 2013, the last full year that United operated a hub in Cleveland, when 9.07 million passengers passed through Hopkins. But the gap is closing.
And airport officials expect that 2017 will be another big growth year, as Allegiant Air launches new service from Cleveland this month and several other airlines, including Spirit, Frontier and Southwest, plan substantial increases in service.
Cleveland Hopkins passenger traffic
2016: 8.42 million
2015: 8.10 million
2014: 7.61 million
2013: 9.07 million
2012: 9.01 million
2011: 9.18 million
2010: 9.49 million
2009: 9.72 million
2008: 11.11 million
2007: 11.46 million
2006: 11.32 million
2005: 11.46 million
2004: 11.26 million
2003: 10.56 million
2002: 10.80 million
2001: 11.86 million
2000: 13.29 million
Source: Cleveland Hopkins, U.S. Department of Transportation
Aviation consultant Tom Reich said it’s no mystery why passenger numbers are up at Hopkins: It’s because fares are down.
“If you decrease the price of a good, more people want to buy it,” said Reich, director of air service development at AvPORTS, an airport management company in Washington. “That lower price stimulates demand.”
Indeed, prices fell as soon as United pulled its hub from Cleveland – and have continued to fall year after year.
The average fare from Cleveland for third quarter 2016 was $328.31, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. That’s a whopping 30 percent decrease from $472.01 in the third quarter of 2013.
Said Reich, “There are people who live in Northeast Ohio who say, ‘I can afford to go to Disney World now.'”
And the prices probably haven’t bottomed out yet, he said, referencing upcoming route increases by several low-cost carriers that serve Cleveland.
Coming in 2017:
* Allegiant Air begins service from Cleveland next week, starting with about 25 weekly departures to 11 destinations.
* Frontier Airlines is adding four new destinations this spring, including nonstop service to San Diego, Houston, Charlotte and Minneapolis/St. Paul.
* Spirit Airlines is adding daily nonstop service to New Orleans in May.
In addition, Southwest Airlines is adding three new flights from Cleveland in June, including twice-daily service to Atlanta.
“As the Allegiants and Spirits and Frontiers of the world continue to grow in Cleveland, they’ll continue to drive prices down,” said Reich.
Other nearby airports, including Columbus and Cincinnati, saw passenger numbers grow in 2016, as well. Here’s how several other airport performed last year:
* Passenger traffic at the Akron-Canton Airport was down 9.5 percent in 2016, due primarily to deep cuts by Southwest Airlines. The airport served 1.4 million travelers in 2016.
* Traffic was up 2.2 percent at Pittsburgh International Airport in 2016, to 8.3 million, the busiest year since 2008, when the recession depressed travel nationwide.
* At John Glenn Columbus International Airport, traffic was up 7.8 percent in 2016, to 7.3 million passengers, thanks in part to the addition of Frontier Airlines.
* And at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, passenger traffic increased 7.2 percent to 6.8 million in 2016. As in Cleveland, fares at Cincinnati continue to plummet, thanks to new service from Frontier and Allegiant.
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