TRAVERSE CITY — Passenger traffic at Cherry Capital Airport continues at a record-breaking pace and is trending toward almost 1 million travelers for the year.
The operations report for June presented this week to the Northwest Regional Airport Authority Board showed 379,151 travelers through the gates for the first six months of the year. That’s a 22% increase from last year’s record travel total of 310,629 for the first half of 2024. The June total of 58,652 is up 18.7% from the 49,403 travelers recorded in June 2024.
Last year the airport totaled a record 787,114 passengers, which broke the previous high-water mark set in 2023 of 700,699. If the current growth trend continues, the airport is poised to log close to 960,000 travelers for the year. The Transportation Security Administration also reported a record number of passengers for a two-day period over the July 5-6 holiday weekend, although total passenger counts for July won’t be available until next month.
Much of the growth continues to be fueled by mainline air carriers American and United airlines. American totaled just over 105,000 travelers for the first half of the year, a 32% increase from a year ago. TVC officials attributed that growth to American adding year-round flight service to its Charlotte hub and using larger aircraft to service the northwest Lower Michigan market. United edged out American as the airport’s busiest air carrier so far this year with 105,848 travelers, a 23.5% increase from a year ago.
Delta is the airport’s third-busiest carrier with just over 98,000 travelers through June. Delta travel numbers were down slightly for the month and are flat with last year, although TVC representatives recently met with Delta officials at their corporate headquarters in Atlanta about expanding flight service to Cherry Capital Airport.
Regional carrier Allegiant Air, which arrived at TVC in 2019 and serves several Florida markets and the Phoenix/Mesa area, is also off to a strong start in 2025. Allegiant totaled more than 65,000 passengers for the first six months of the year, a 40% increase from a year ago. June also saw the debut of new seasonal flight service from JetBlue airlines between Cherry Capital and Boston’s Logan International Airport. Those flights saw 882 travelers arriving from Boston last month on JetBlue, while 632 passengers went the other way.
Take-offs and landings from the seven airlines serving the airport are up just over 25% for the year, while local air travel is down nearly 15% for the year.
The busy airlines are also boosting TVC’s fuel sales, which exceeded 2.4 million gallons through June which represents a 21.6% increase from last year. Fuel sales to American airlines aircraft is up nearly 40% from last year with the additional flights and larger aircraft. Fuel sales to Allegiant are also up almost 40%, while United’s fuel purchases are up 30% from a year ago.
Cargo shipping is about the only soft spot in the airport’s operational numbers, which TVC officials said represent a national trend as cargo shipments through the air have been on a downward trend since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Total cargo movement was at 788,599 pounds through June, which is down 9.1% from a year ago. UPS/Airborne moved 661,534 pounds of cargo through TVC through June, down about 11% last year. Federal Express totaled 126,450 pounds of cargo for the first six months of the year, a 2.4% increase from last year.