After four years of steady gains following the COVID-19 pandemic’s decimation of air travel in 2020, passenger traffic at El Paso International Airport declined in 2025.
Traffic decreased almost 5% to 3.84 million passengers.
That’s 200,000 fewer passengers than in 2024 when the airport handled 4.04 million passengers, its busiest year in at least 35 years, airport officials said.
The amount of cargo going through the airport also declined by 11.3%.
Airport traffic is important to El Paso’s economy, including local hotels, many of which depend on business travelers.
Most airports in the United States saw passenger traffic declines in 2025 as the air travel market softened, said Tony Nevarez, the airport’s aviation director.
The decline in cargo likely was a return to more normal cargo traffic at the El Paso airport after several years of higher numbers, Nevarez said in a written report. Air cargo traffic decreased throughout North America in 2025, Nevarez said.
Airport revenues projected at $45.4M in 2026
The declines in traffic likely didn’t lower the airport’s revenues much, Nevarez said.
Airport revenues were projected to increase 7.4% in fiscal year 2025 to $43.5 million, according to city budget data. However, the actual revenue amount for fiscal year 2025 was not yet available.
Revenues are projected to increase to $45.4 million in fiscal year 2026, which runs from Sept. 1, 2025 through Aug. 31, 2026.
Airport revenues in fiscal 2026 include an expected $2.1 million in revenues from airport land leases for industrial buildings and hotels. That revenue, not affected by airport operations, helps when revenues from airport operations decline, Nevarez said.
El Paso 82nd busiest airport in US, Canada
El Paso was the 82nd busiest airport in 2024 among 263 airports in the U.S. and Canada, according to the latest ranking by Airports Council International, a Washington, D.C. trade organization. It ranked No. 52 in cargo handling.
It averages 55 daily, nonstop flights to 13 cities.
Airspace closure shouldn’t hurt image, airport director says
The airport got a lot of national attention in early February, when the Federal Aviation Administration announced it closed airspace over the airport for 10 days, but rescinded the order Feb. 11, after being in effect for 7 ½ early-morning hours.
Trump administration officials said the temporary closure was due to Mexican cartel drones breaching U.S. airspace and the military taking action to disable them. However, several news outlets reported the airspace shutdown was due to the military’s failure to coordinate with FAA officials the use of a new, high-powered laser designed to shoot down cartel drones.
Nevarez said he, like everyone in El Paso, was shocked by the shutdown.
Nevarez doesn’t see the shutdown episode hurting the airport’s image, or making it harder to attract new airline routes or new airlines to El Paso, an ongoing focus for airport and city officials, he said.
More: El Paso home prices slightly rise in 2025; median price hits $274,200
Softer economy plays part in passenger decline
The 2025 decline in passenger traffic was caused by a softer economy, rising ticket prices and other factors, Nevarez said.
The exit of Allegiant, a low-cost airline, from El Paso in 2025 also had a small effect on the passenger decline, Nevarez said. Allegiant, in El Paso for almost nine years, had four weekly flights to Las Vegas, Nevada, when it left El Paso.
Allegiant, based in Las Vegas, is acquiring Sun Country Airlines, another low-cost airline based in Minnesota, in a deal expected to be completed in the second half of 2026. The combined airlines will use the Allegiant name.
The director of the San Antonio International Airport, in a January report, said the 43-day federal government shutdown in October and November contributed to declines in air passenger traffic.
An El Paso anomaly is that the number of enplaned passengers, those boarding flights in El Paso, declined 7.1% in 2025, higher than the 2.6% decline in deplaned passengers, those exiting flights at the airport.
The number of enplaned and deplaned passengers tend to be around a 50-50 mix at most airports, Nevarez said. Fewer migrant and asylum‑seeking travelers taking one‑way flights out of El Paso played a factor in the decrease in enplaned passengers in 2025, Nevarez said.
New flights to Nashville to boost traffic in 2026
This year, passenger traffic isn’t expected to decline from 2025, Nevarez said.
“We’re stabilizing and I think we’re going to see some slow growth,” he said.
Southwest Airlines, with the largest El Paso market share among six airlines, is adding a new destination, Nashville, Tennessee, in October, and also adding extra flights to Austin and Los Angeles in October, airport officials said.
Also, TAR Mexico, the largest regional airline in Mexico, is entering the El Paso market with flights on 50-seat jets to Chihuahua City, scheduled to begin this summer. The airport’s been without international flights for over a decade.
A couple more flight announcements are expected soon, Nevarez said.
New routes and new airlines help increase passenger traffic, and that’s why the city offers incentives for both, he said.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on X, and @vkolenc.bsky.social on Bluesky.
El Paso airline passenger shares
El Paso airport passenger shares by airline in December 2025:
Source: El Paso International Airport
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso airport traffic dips after post-pandemic rebound: See numbers
Reporting by Vic Kolenc, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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