Houston Airport System saw 109% month-over-month increase in May passenger travel

Flights coming in and out of the Houston Airport System are slowing increasing as the economy reopens amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Courtesy Houston Airport System)

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By Kelly Schafler | 5:15 PM Jun 26, 2020 CDT

Flights coming in and out of the Houston Airport System are slowly increasing as the economy reopens amid the coronavirus pandemic.

May passenger data from HAS shows that both George Bush Intercontinental Airport in the Humble area and William P. Hobby Airport in southeast Houston saw a significant decline in year-over-year travel; however, the airports saw a 109.31% increase in travel month over month, from 242,583 total passengers in April to 507,750 in May.

IAH passenger data took a 90.8% decline year over year, from 3.93 million passengers in May 2019 to 361,035 passengers in May 2020. HOU saw an 88.41% passenger decline, from 1.27 million in May 2019 to 146,715 in May 2020.

Despite the year-over-year change, each airport saw about double number of passengers in May than in April. IAH's travel increased 99.7% between April and May, while HOU increased 137.41% month over month, per HAS data. HOU's May data only includes domestic flights, as there were not any international flights.

By Kelly Schafler

Editor, Lake Houston | Humble | Kingwood

Kelly Schafler is the editor for the Lake Houston, Humble and Kingwood edition of Community Impact Newspaper, covering public education, city government, development, businesses, local events and all things community-related. Before she became editor, she was the reporter for the Conroe and Montgomery edition for a year and a half.

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