More than three-quarters of commercial U.S. airports have fewer flights now than three years ago, according to an analysis of OAG data by the Regional Airline Association (RAA).\u00a0<\/p>\n
On a percentage basis, small airports have been hit harder than large airports.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The RAA analysis, which compared October 2022 operations to operations in October 2019, found a decline in U.S. domestic air operations of 18.4%, according to Cirium schedule data.\u00a0<\/p>\n
RAA found that 324 U.S. commercial airports lost flight frequency between 2019 and 2022. Those airports comprise 76% of commercial airports.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Declines have happened at airports big and small due to high fuel costs, delays in aircraft deliveries and an ongoing pilot shortage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The RAA said that 25 large-hub airports, which are defined by the FAA as airports that receive at least 1% of departing U.S. commercial airport passengers, have experienced a 16% decline in traffic. Twenty-three medium-hub airports, which receive between 0.25% and 1% of U.S. passengers, also saw a 16% decline. <\/p>\n
Service losses have been steepest, however, at the smallest airports.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the RAA, 51 small-hub airports, defined as those that receive between 0.05% and 0.25% of U.S. passengers, have had a 19% reduction in traffic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among airports that receive from 10,000 departing passengers annually to 0.05% of U.S. passengers, 171 have lost flights. The average decline at those airports is 35%.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among the smallest commercial airports, which receive between 2,500 and 10,000 passengers per year, 54 have lost flights. The average decline at those airports is 44%.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fourteen airports, the RAA notes, have lost all commercial air service since October 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though domestic flights last month were down 18.4% from October 2019, the total seat count for U.S. domestic operations was down just 5.3%. The disparity is primarily a result of decisions by major carriers to use fewer regional aircraft, especially 50-seat planes, and favor larger and more economically favorable aircraft types.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The RAA says that approximately 500 U.S. regional jets were parked as of mid-year.<\/p>\n
The Big 3 carriers were already reducing their use of 50-seat planes before the pandemic. But an acute pilot shortage that emerged as the pandemic ebbed has spurred those carriers to accelerate their pull-back from small-market flying.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We are on the precipice of a wholesale collapse of small community air service,” RAA CEO Faye Malarkey Black said. “It has already begun, with 60 U.S. airports losing more than half their air service since 2019.”<\/p>\n
Black called upon policymakers to address the issue.<\/p>\n