On Monday, July 31, San Antonio International Airport (SAT) saw its busiest day ever with 41,560 passengers flying in and out of the airport combined, according to the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) throughput data (which tallies the number of passengers crossing through checkpoints). The TSA data shows the previous record was set on March 8, 2019 – when an estimated 37,998 people flew in and out of SAT. It comes on the heels of SAT experiencing the busiest June on record with 949,830 passengers.
“We’re having the best and busiest summer ever at SAT,” said Jesus Saenz, Director of Airports, San Antonio Airport System (SAAS). “We are seeing significant numbers of travelers. This trend is a sign of our continued growth. We’re so elated to see so many people in our community taking trips and we’re welcoming people who are visiting San Antonio from all over the world. Our Airport Ambassadors, who love to give back by volunteering to help people find their way, absolutely love this time of year because we are bustling.”
Brian Pratte, Chief Air Service Development Officer, SAAS, said SAT’s growth to specific markets in July is astounding.
“We are seeing double-digit growth in capacity (seats) to Mexico and numerous cities across the U.S. compared to July 2019 – which was a record-breaking year for us,” Pratte said. “This is encouraging news for our economy and shows the impact of our targeted efforts at SAT – to expand air service options for our customers both locally and globally.”
Those growing markets include:
- Monterrey, Mexico (MTY)
- Miami, FL (MIA)
- Newark, NJ (EWR)
- San Francisco, CA (SFO)
- Detroit, MI (DTW)
- Tampa, FL (TPA)
- Cancun, Mexico (CUN)
- Denver, CO (DEN)
- Orlando, FL (MCO)
- Charlotte, NC (CLT)
- Salt Lake City (SLC)
- Los Angeles, CA (LAX)
- Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, FL (FLL)
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN (MSP)
- Las Vegas, NV (LAS)
- Baltimore, MD/Washington, D.C. (BWI)
“We also have growth worth noting to new markets that weren’t served in July 2019 – such as Boston, MA (BOS); Leon/Guanajuato, Mexico (BJX); Oklahoma City, OK (OKC) and Albuquerque, NM (ABQ),” Pratte added. “People are finding some fantastic deals on flights the earlier they book them – especially for trips during non-peak times like September, October and early November.”
SAT experienced a daily average of 34,000 inbound and outbound travelers over June and July. During the same time frame last year, that number was about 30,000 daily.
- July 2023: Busiest Fourth of July Weekend Travel Period ever (162,540 passengers)
- June 2023: Busiest June ever and second-busiest month ever (only behind July 2019)
- May 2023: Busiest May ever (also, the first-time passenger numbers exceeded 900,000)
- November 2022: Busiest Thanksgiving Travel Period ever (150,758 passengers)
- September 2022: Busiest Labor Day Weekend Travel Period ever (144,996 passengers)
Last month, Southwest Airlines resumed its daily, nonstop service to Kansas City. The airline also increased its nonstop flights to BWI to three times daily during the week.
In October, Southwest will increase nonstops to San Diego from once daily to twice daily. Also, American Airlines will increase Dallas-Ft. Worth nonstops to 13 times a day – which is a net increase of 3,600 seats a week on average. This helps give passengers more options and flexibility to the Dallas region in addition to one stop options throughout the world.
Although the TSA throughput data is preliminary, SAT will release an official statistics report in mid-August. It will include a detailed breakdown of its July passenger numbers.
