2018 Ranks Among Airport’s 10 Busiest Years

More than 3.6 million airline passengers flew through Tucson International Airport (TUS) in 2018, making it one of the 10 busiest years in the airport’s 70-year history, the Tucson Airport Authority reported at its annual meeting Monday (January 28).

December’s total of 330,561 was up 10.3% over December 2017. It was also the second busiest month of 2018 behind the 359,159 passengers who used the airport in March, which is traditionally the busiest month of year.

The 2018 total of 3,617,824 was 5.4% more than 2017’s total of 3,433,563.

The increase was attributed to airlines adding new destinations, using larger aircraft and the November arrival of ultralow-cost carriers (ULCC’s) Allegiant and Frontier, along with the return of Sun Country, which resumed seasonal service for a second year in December.

As of year’s end, TUS was served by nine airlines – Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest, Sun Country, United and Via Air – flying to 22 destination airports – Atlanta, Austin, Bellingham (Vancouver), Charlotte, Chicago Midway, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Houston Hobby, Houston Intercontinental, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Oakland, Phoenix, Portland, Provo, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle.

Airlines continue to make adjustments to their schedules and, going into 2019, Southwest Airlines added weekly nonstop flights on Sundays to its hometown airport, Dallas Love Field.

All airlines increased their passenger totals at TUS in 2018. American Airlines continued as the airport’s busiest carrier, serving 1,368,455 passengers, a 3.3% increase over 2017. Southwest was the second busiest airline, serving 976,769 passengers.