Piedmont Triad International Airport hasn’t quite been the same since 2019; however, according to PTI Executive Director Kevin Baker this might finally be the year he’s been longing for: the year the airport gets passenger traffic back up and over where it was before Covid turned the travel world upside down.
That year – 2019 – saw PTI hit a high-water mark when it comes to people flying in and out of the airport, with more than 2.14 million passengers. It was a strong showing and a hopeful sign that the Triad’s airport was gaining a lot of ground as a mid-size regional hub.
Then, however, the pandemic arrived, and – like every other airport in the country – PTI took a major hit. Flights were slashed, terminals emptied out and passenger traffic all but collapsed.
In the spring of 2020, things hit rock bottom. May of that year was the lowest month on record in recent history – down 92 percent compared to May 2019. People simply weren’t flying. Baker told the Rhino Times that month that one day there were more people working at the PTI terminal than there were passengers who went through it.
Nationally, too, the airline industry was devastated. Airline stock prices plummeted. Planes were parked in the desert. Routes disappeared. Airports that were used to seeing millions of passengers annually were suddenly seeing thousands on a good day.
PTI was hit like everywhere else, but the airport has been clawing its way back ever since. There were signs of life in 2021 and 2022, and a decent rebound in 2023, with nearly 1.76 million passengers counted for the year. But even then, it was still a few hundred thousand shy of that 2019 figure of 2,145,929.
Now, though, there’s real optimism that this could be the year. Baker said the numbers from the first half of 2025 suggest that this is likely the year PTI finally gets back to that pre-Covid level. May 2025 saw a 6 percent increase in passengers compared to May 2024. The year-to-date numbers are up 4 percent, and that’s before factoring in the traditionally busy summer travel months.
In 2024, the total was 1,959,182.
One thing that will help in 2025 is the addition of low-fare, no-frills Breeze Airways.
“We were just shy of 2 million last year and, with growth this year and the addition of Breeze, we should be back to 2019 this year,” Baker told the Rhino Times.
Breeze Airways started flying out of PTI last month and offers expanded options with new nonstop service to places like Orlando and Hartford. That’s added both seats and destinations. Breeze gives PTI five airlines now, and the load factors – meaning how full the planes are – are strong. By the end of 2024, load factors were hitting 88 percent, which means those extra flights are really getting used.
Nationally, air travel has already recovered to a large extent. The big airports rebounded first, while regional airports like PTI were seeing steady growth year after year. Most airlines, burned by the losses of 2020 and 2021, have been careful not to overschedule.
PTI’s cargo numbers tell a different story. While freight boomed during the pandemic – especially with so much online shopping– that trend has cooled. In 2021 and 2022, the airport handled more than 340 million pounds of cargo. However, by 2024, that fell to just under 192 million pounds – a figure more in line with pre-Covid levels.
The return to higher passenger numbers and likely beating pre-Covid levels are nice complements to the astonishing growth of business at PTI’s aviation megasite.
The upward trend in passengers began in 2022, with a 25 percent increase over 2021. That momentum carried into 2023 and has continued. April and March of 2025 both showed year-over-year gains – 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively. It’s not explosive, but it’s been steady, and, combined with other factors, it’s enough to suggest that PTI will cross that 2.14 million mark by the end of the year.
Those numbers help the airport make the case for more service, more investment, and more connections. Airlines look at passenger totals when they decide where to add routes, and local businesses pay attention to how easy it is to get in and out of town.
For years, PTI has worked to shake the image of being a sleepy airport. Reaching or exceeding its 2019 numbers in 2025 would go a long way toward doing that.
On the down side, a busier airport means more parking hassles and longer lines – especially when the Real ID issue is slowing down security since many people still don’t have a Real ID and the appointments to get one in North Carolina stay completely booked almost all the time.
The airport is making changes in regard to passenger traffic: Plans are in the works for substantial concourse upgrades and improvements to enhance passenger experience. It’s all part of a broader effort to make PTI more competitive and more attractive – not just for flyers in the Greensboro area, but also for those throughout the entire region who usually choose to fly out of Raleigh or Charlotte .
