US sees record air travel in July. How many people fly through Pennsylvania airports?
Editor’s note: This story and visualization are part of our new “Data In Your Life” series, in which we mine public databases to tell quick stories about the world around us.
Following a few years of depressed travel numbers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a record 3 million travelers moved through American airports July 7. However, not all states have returned to pre-pandemic levels of air travel just yet.
Back in 2020, Pennsylvania’s airport traffic decreased by about 62% from the year before. Decreased travel restrictions over the past few years—particularly as COVID-19 vaccines became more available—have helped people travel more frequently and in larger numbers.
The U.S. Department of Transportation publishes data on the number of passengers flying to or from a given airport. This chart shows the number of passengers who flew to or from a Pennsylvania airport in each year from 2019 to 2023.
In the years since the pandemic began, airport traffic has bounced back but still has not returned to pre-pandemic levels in Pennsylvania and roughly half of the U.S. In 2023, Pennsylvania’s airport traffic was down 12.6% since 2019.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement he expects record-breaking travel to continue in the coming months.
“It was an extraordinary achievement,” Mayorkas said. “TSA fully, unerringly, and efficiently checked 35 passengers every second, along with all their luggage and carry-on baggage, while demonstrating unwavering professionalism and respect for travelers during the intensely busy holiday weekend.”
How has air travel changed in central Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania’s statewide push to return to pre-pandemic air travel is largely no different on the local levels.
Roughly 384,342 total passengers traveled to and from State College Regional Airport in 2019, according to the federal transportation agency. Air travel plummeted in 2020, dropping by about 61% to just 148,001 total passengers.
More recently, air travel out of State College’s airport has generally increased. The airport accommodated 244,352 total passengers in 2021, marking a 65% increase over 2020’s total. That victory was short-lived, however, when the total number of passengers through State College Regional Airport dropped by 9% and fell to 222,101 in 2022.
The airport bounced back with a marginal victory in 2023, when roughly 274,567 total passengers were funneled through State College. That figure represents a 23.6% increase over 2022’s total tally of passengers at State College Regional Airport, but it still falls well short of 2019’s pre-pandemic air travel.
Formerly named University Park Airport, the State College Regional Airport received its new name in November 2023 as Penn State and the Centre County Airport Authority sought to eliminate some confusion among locals and travelers, who colloquially referred to it as “the State College airport.”
The airport has used the same airline city code (“SCE”) since 1978, but pilots and air traffic controllers use the Federal Aviation Administration-recognized “UNV” tag.
Today, State College Regional Airport offers daily flights to destinations like Philadelphia, Chicago and Newark, N.J. The airport recently resumed daily round-trip flights to Washington, D.C., and opened a new cafe back in March.
The airport supports roughly 1,750 jobs and carried a payroll of about $86 million in 2022, according to an economic impact study. Penn State owns the airport and is responsible for its administration, planning, development, operation, maintenance and security, while the county’s airport authority handles commercial airline operations and parking.
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