Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in 2022 served almost exactly the same number of travelers it did in the last year of the pre-pandemic era, while Washington Dulles International Airport still has some ground to make up.
The 23,936,235 commercial-airline passengers traveling through Reagan National last year represented an increase of 71 percent from 2021 and was on par with the figure of 23,945,235 recorded in 2019, according to data reported by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and analyzed by the GazetteLeader.
At Dulles, the 2022 passenger total of 21,225,826, while up 44 percent from a year before, was still below the pre-pandemic total of 24,817,677 recorded in 2019.
(Year-end 2022 figures were reported Feb. 15, and in this calculation do not include the relatively small number of passengers served by general-aviation and military flights.)
The year ended “strong at both airports,” said Jack Potter, president/CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), speaking at the authority’s Feb. 15 board meeting several hours before the year-end totals were announced.
Indeed: Passenger traffic in December was up 6.6 percent from the relatively strong 2021 holiday season at Reagan National and up 15.1 percent at Dulles, with the latter boosted by a big (46%) increase in year-over-year international travel. Asian-based carriers Korean Air and ANA posted increases of 225 and 348 percent, respectively, while Air France, Lufthansa and Aer Lingus each recorded strong year-over-year growth.
But even as the region’s airports seem to be back on track after having weathered three years of COVID, concerns were raised at the MWAA board meeting about the future impacts of an iffy economy.
“We all have to keep our eyes on the ball [given] all the uncertainty in front of us,” authority chair William Sudow said at the board meeting.
At the meeting, the board directed Potter to come back in March with a report on options for battening the financial hatches, in case economic (or health) conditions sour and the traveling public pulls back.
In December, American Airlines had a market share of 58.8 percent of passengers at Reagan National, followed by Southwest (15.3%) and Delta (13.9%). At Dulles, United had a market share of 64.7 percent, followed by Delta (4.9%) and American (2.3%).
