LVIA surpasses last year’s travel numbers

The year isn’t quite over, but Lehigh Valley International Airport in Hanover Township, Lehigh County said it has already surpassed last year’s passenger traffic.

The airport saw 792,974 travelers for all of 2018. It had reached more than 800,000 travelers by the end of November of this year.

November had 71,098 passengers using the airport, a 2.43 percent increase over the 69,414 who traveled through LVIA in November 2018.

The airport expects to have a busy December, which is typical during the holidays.

Thomas Stoudt, executive director of the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority, said for the most part the weather has helped with the higher passenger traffic numbers.

“Even with a temporary reduction of service to Chicago – that typically happens as airlines prepare for unsettled weather in the Midwest – ABE still delivered a very strong month of traffic by Allegiant and American. We’re hoping that momentum carries us to the finish line of a memorable year,” said Stoudt.

Allegiant reported a passenger traffic increase of 28.9 percent, while American jumped 17.1 percent. Delta declined in traffic for the month by 5.9 percent and United experienced a sharp drop of 34 percent, due to a scheduled removal of one daily flight to Chicago.

This was the 26^th consecutive month that the airport saw a growth in traffic.