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Airport Passenger Count Up in First Half of '19

Published Aug 07, 2019 by Maggie Martin

The Houston Chronicle reports nearly 30 million passengers traveled through the Houston airports in the first half of 2019, more than a four percent increase for the same period last year at Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports.

According to the Chronicle, a record number of 58.3 million passengers went through IAH and Hobby last year. It was the first year-over-year uptick in traffic since the oil-price slump and Hurricane Harvey prompted a couple years of modest declines. 

The Houston Airport System had other positive gains earlier this year.

According to the Greater Houston’s Partnership’s most recent Key Economic Indicator report on Aviation, HAS handled 59.4 million passengers in the 12 months ending in May 2019. That’s another record for Houston and an 8 percent increase from the 55 million handled over a year ending in May 2018. Domestic travel saw the greatest gains with a 4.8 percent increase in passengers from May 2018 to May 2019, which is about 192,000 more passengers. 

These numbers come on the heels of several developments in Houston aviation, including JetBlue’s announcement that it’ll move its operations from Hobby Airport to IAH in October to grow its Houston customer base and expand its presence in the northeast. 

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