The global COVID-19 pandemic is over and most of the people who caught it during the first wave recovered long ago.
However, one place where recovery isn’t evident is at Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA), where, in terms of passengers using the airport, the numbers haven’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
Though the pandemic is a distant memory, new statistics that just came out this week for calendar year 2023, show that the number of flyers using the airport still hasn’t surpassed the pre-COVID number.
What makes that so disappointing is that everything else at the airport is going swimmingly. Renovations have been made to the terminal, the parking decks, and the runways, and the 1,000-plus acre aviation megasite at PTIA is a raging success that’s drawn a lot of commercial business to the area.
On Tuesday, Jan. 23, the seven-member Piedmont Triad Airport Authority – the board that oversees the airport’s operations – got the same story for 2023 that they’ve heard before. That passenger traffic is hard to get back.
The number of passengers was up 10 percent in December 2023 over December 2022 and up 12 percent for 2023 over 2022.
However, despite those increases, 2023 didn’t generate more passenger traffic than 2019 – the last year before the pandemic hit the US.
The stats show that the number of passengers for December 2023 versus 2019 was down 20 percent.
In other stats released by airport staff Tuesday…
• Cargo at PTIA was down 17 percent in December 2023 from December 2022 and down 19 percent year to date. Cargo for November 2023 versus 2019 was up 13 percent.
• The total number of seats scheduled for departing PTIA in March 2024 is 94,808, down 4 percent from March 2023.
• The “load factor” – that is, the average percentage of airplane seats departing from PTIA that were filled with passengers – was 79 percent in October 2023, which is 6 percentage points lower than October 2022 and roughly the same as October 2019.
Most know you can fly cheaper with more direct flights from Raleigh or Charlotte vs spending all day in multiple airports if you fly out of Greensboro. Been that way for decades. Quit complaining and fix it. If you can’t compete you need to be satisfied with what you got.
Unless you get someone to drive you an hour plus each way, you’re going to spend ten dollars or more per day to park your car. You also have to deal with more people and longer lines. I will gladly pay extra to fly out of PTI for the convenience.
I have heard numerous individuals say it’s cheaper to fly out from Raleigh or Charlotte. However, it is still convenient for me to fly out utilizing PTI. By the time you drive to the other two cities and leave your car at the airport for five days; the monies spent on gas and storage is equivalent to the cheaper air fare. Once I return home from a flight I like to be in the city that I reside in. I fly to the west coast all the time. It would be nice to have other airline options when flying out.
Absolutely agree. When flying out of GSO is $200 more than RDU, I’ll spend 1 hrs to drive to RDU. 5 airlines serve GSO and there about 15 that serve RDU. Less service plus more money, thanks a lot GSO.
Business travel is what’s missing. Many companies have gone to a work from home model and that includes the consultants that used to travel weekly. On March 13, 2020, I got of a plane for the last time traveling to a client on a regular basis. Been remote ever since. Like most of my client workforces.
They need to attract more airlines, and work with existing airlines to lower fares. Passengers have been lost to Raleigh and Charlotte due to more airlines, flight options and cheaper fares.
Air travel is expensive; and it is an ordeal. If you have to get somewhere, and a car or train doesn’t work, you have no choice. So far, I haven’t had to make that choice.
Have you checked to see if Charlotte and Raleigh are experiencing the same problem? People’s daily expenses have gone up considerably so I would imagine they are not traveling so much.
I believe an issue is that routes have disappeared. I would like to take the early Saturday morning nonstop flight to LaGuardia this month as I did this time of year pre COVID to hang out in NYC for the day and it doesn’t exist. It seems to be seasonal now as I know it existed in November.
LaGuardia has to be the most difficult and substandard connection point I’ve ever been through. Well maybe on par with Amsterdam and the drug busts and police with automatic weapons. PTI has done you a great service by restricting you lol
My husband flies every week to and from Florida. It would be amazing if he could use PTI so I would only have a 20 minute drive to pick him up and drop him off, but unfortunately direct flights are either non-existent or cost an arm and a leg compared to Charlotte and Raleigh.
PTI needs to talk with RDU & CLT, as they both just reported record passenger loads for 2023, surpassing 2019 pre-pandemic levels. I agree that business travel has declined, as I used to be a road warrior traveling out of GSO about 40 – 45 weeks a year prior to the pandemic. PTI needs to attract more airlines/flights for leisure travel.
Doesn’t help that airlines have cut back on their flights to hubs either, and witj that the prices are higher. I have 3 international flights in 2024, one from Charlotte. One greemsbro, and one from Roanoke! GSOnis being priced out of the Piedmont market
It would be nice to have more direct flights from PTI, especially to tropical islands.
From what I understand, the Asheville Regional Airport has surpassed PTI-GSO for the 3rd busiest airport in the state. Wilmington is now not far behind PTI-GSO.
I wonder why…..
The flights from GSO to CLT are so unreliable that I always drive to CLT. There was a time when PTI would shuttle you to Charlotte if a connection was cancelled or severely delayed but I guess that ended with 9/11.
Lower the prices!!!
Bring in Southwest Airlines. (Yes I heard there was a promise made to Delta they would never be brought to Greensboro)
I was an “airport brat” from the old original airport (70 years ago). Seems all their fancying up and “improvements” haven’t done much to increase the publics desire to fly from here. It just seems to drive the cost of the tickets up. The present terminal never has had any welcoming warmth to it. And the one before wasn’t much better. I drive to Raleigh to avoid the PTI mausoleum.
My wife and I recently went to PHX. We are closest to GRO -25 minutes vs CLT 60 and RDU
75. Gave GRO a try after 12 years. Parked in lot/
deck. Waited for shuttle service. Called 3 times.
Picked up +35 min. On return waited on curb15 minutes. Gave traffic officer $20 to get us a ride to parking!! Never will consider GSO!!!
No longer direct flights to Hawaii from PTI
Many different industries still have long Covid.
It will take years to adjust & some may never fully recover. They never should have shut down or been restricted in the first place. If we have learned anything from the Covid farce it is that the government & the globalists cannot be trusted, and that liberalism is a mental disorder. Can we get a one way direct flight for the City Manager?
. . . said the ‘global warmers/polluters’ .
Locally, you can avoid parking, fees, and time by having a friend drop you off. Returning to GSO via connection is asking for a missed flight. Directs from RDU & CLT had saved me all this grief, especially in the winter.