San Antonio International Airport reports decrease in passengers in August

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — The grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is impacting air travel across the country including San Antonio International Airport.

The airport is reporting the lack of the aircraft along with the slow moving Hurricane Dorian resulted in a decrease in passengers in August. It’s the first time San Antonio International has reported a dip in traffic in over three years.

“We were very disappointed to see the streak end – it was definitely something we looked forward to announcing every month,” stated Russ Handy, Aviation Director. “The airline industry is very fluid, and we knew the month of August would present us with challenges as the MAX grounding and hurricane season began to overlap. Even with these uncontrollable factors, we were still hopeful we would reach a 38th consecutive month, but fell less than 1% short.”

Domestic flights and the amount of air cargo moving through the airport both saw single digit drops.
Since the 737 MAX was taken out of service, two carriers had to make schedule adjustments. The changes forced the suspension of some routes and less frequent flights.

However, the airport did see an increase in international flights.

Even though the record setting came to an end, the airport is still reporting a 20% increase in passengers since 2016.