San Francisco Worldwide Airport reaches pre-pandemic milestone | Native Information

SFO departed 70,000 travelers on both Thursday and Friday last week – a travel milestone not reached last week since the pandemic.

Travel hasn’t fully recovered yet, an airport spokesman said, but the trend is definitely picking up speed.

San Francisco International Airport spokesman Doug Yakel said the number of travelers on May 11 and 12 was the highest the airport has seen in more than three years.

Before the pandemic, the airport saw an average of 157,501 travelers per day. During the 2020 pandemic, the average was 44,885 travelers per day. Last year the average was 81,906. For this year, Yakel forecasts around 127,000 average travelers per day.

Annual passenger numbers have fluctuated since 2019 when they stood at 57.48 million. In 2020, the annual numbers dropped to 16.42 million. In 2022, the annual number rose to 42.28 million and Yakel estimates that number will rise to 46 million this year.

Yakel expects more than 14 million travelers during this year’s peak season, from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend. In 2019, before the pandemic, it was 18.08 million. During the pandemic, peak-season numbers dropped to 2.47 million, then rose to 13.41 million last year.

“We’re anticipating the busiest summer since the pandemic began,” Yakel said.

Travel has increased by 61% from the summer of 2021 to last year and people are coming to the region for tourism rather than business. John Hutar, President and CEO of The San Francisco Peninsula, said the shoreline is busier with travelers on weekends and the Bayside is busier on weekdays.

“And we’re seeing that trend returning to normal,” Hutar said.

Congresses are still catching up and the consequences of layoffs in companies are still not felt. However, the peninsula is a natural area with easy access to major attractions, he said.

“We’re a great anchor point for natural beauty and a lot of places in close proximity, such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Monterey Bay,” said Hutar.

Room rates are low and high-end hotels are doing well, but Hutar said the rest of the hotel industry still has a long way to go before it returns to pre-pandemic levels.

In the first quarter of 2023, occupancy is still down about 20% compared to 2019. Hutar explained that occupancy is better than last year’s numbers, which were down 30% compared to 2019.

“We see that the number of group congresses is very high, has only recovered very slowly and the amount of traffic and inquiries this year shows that it has been promising,” said Hutar. “But at the moment we are satisfied with the current development.”

Hutar is encouraged to see that hotels near the SFO corridor are starting to grow and accommodate more travelers. As hotel bookings continue to recover, the summer boom at the airport is leading to longer queues for travelers.

Travelers should allow more time to exit the airport, Yakel said.

“We recommend two hours in advance for domestic flights and three hours in advance for international flights,” Yackel said.

Additionally, SFO expects its parking garages to reach full capacity, and Yakel recommends travelers use ride-hailing services or use public transit such as BART.

“We recommend that people who want to park at SFO, both short-term and long-term, book in advance on SFO’s website. It’s a way to ensure there’s still room available,” Yakel said.

SFO is also offering some new programs, he said. Two airlines, ITA and United, are offering non-stop flights to Rome this summer. Two newer airlines also offer international low cost flights. One of them, Norse Atlantic, flies to London. And Zip Air flies to Tokyo, he said.

“Farees vary, but they’re definitely cheaper than some of the incumbent airlines,” Yakel said.