Red Hot Summer: PIT Reports Busiest Month in 19 Years

Record nationwide air travel and continued strong demand in the region contributed to Pittsburgh International Airport’s busiest month in nearly two decades.

More than 970,000 passengers traveled through PIT in June, the highest monthly travel in and out of the airport since July 2005, when it recorded more than 1.02 million passengers. It was the highest passenger total in a single month since PIT’s waning days as a hub for US Airways.

June also was PIT’s largest monthly increase over pre-pandemic traffic levels with nearly 70,000 additional passengers than during the same period in 2019.

Airlines scheduled more than 1.2 million seats at PIT in June, the most of any month since May 2007. Carriers operated more than 170,000 additional seats at the airport last month than in the pre-pandemic month of June 2019.

Year-over-year, total passengers at PIT rose nearly 14 percent from June 2023 and airline capacity grew 21.5 percent. Year-to-date, more than 4.7 million travelers have passed through PIT, 9 percent ahead of last year’s pace and 1.3 percent above pre-pandemic levels.

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Pittsburgh International Airport CEO Christina Cassotis said at last week’s Airport Authority board meeting that the local market is responding to the increased air service options and is leaving pre-pandemic numbers behind.

“What that means is that we are beating our forecasts for the year. We had forecast that we would be back to 2019 levels, and we’ve passed it,” Cassotis said. “We expect this will be a new watermark year, and we can start talking about 2024 as a new benchmark as we continue to see growth in the market.”

Then versus now

Although 2005 was shortly after PIT lost its status as a hub, US Airways still maintained a significant presence at the time, which included many connecting flights across mainline and regional destinations.

During that period, between 40 and 50 percent of PIT’s total traffic was still connecting flights, with US Airways controlling over 60 percent of the market share, the most of any airline.

Today, over 95 percent of PIT’s passengers start and end their trips in Pittsburgh rather than connecting to destinations beyond. As part of its transition from a connecting hub to an origin-and-destination airport, PIT’s new terminal will provide an improved passenger experience when it opens next year.

Over a 20-year span, PIT’s airline mix has also changed dramatically. It now includes low-cost carriers (LCCs) such as Southwest Airlines, JetBlue and Breeze Airways; ultra-low-cost carriers (ULCCs) including Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines and Sun Country Airlines; foreign flag carriers Air Canada, British Airways and Icelandair; and legacy carriers American, United and Delta.

Southwest continues to be PIT’s top carrier by market share, flying 24.5 percent of the airport’s total passengers in June, followed closely by American Airlines at 21 percent.

Following the launch of multiple new routes, all ULCCs combined increased their market share at PIT to 18 percent of total traffic. Spirit led the way, flying 9.7 percent of the airport’s total passengers following the addition of new daily service to New York-LaGuardia in May and Boston and Houston-Intercontinental in June.

RELATED: PIT’s Ultra Low-Cost Carriers Expand Into Non-Leisure Markets 

Other airlines increasing their market share last month were Frontier Airlines, which launched new service to Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia and Raleigh-Durham in May; and Icelandair, which launched seasonal, nonstop service to Reykjavik, Iceland.

Alongside Spirit’s new service to Boston and Houston-Intercontinental, PIT also saw Southwest begin seasonal, nonstop service to San Diego in June. Southwest is one of two carriers now flying the Pittsburgh-San Diego route following Breeze’s entry into the market in May.

PIT’s network will add another addition later this year with Delta Air Lines resuming daily, nonstop service to Salt Lake City. Starting Nov. 23, daily service to Salt Lake City provides convenient access to one of Delta’s largest hubs consisting of 90 destinations and a popular destination for business and leisure travelers.

Following Delta’s recent announcement of resuming the Pittsburgh-Salt Lake City route, PIT now has nonstop service to 62 destinations across 171 peak-day departures.