Passenger traffic at Lehigh Valley International Airport has returned to pre-pandemic levels. WDIY’s Sarit Laschinsky has more.
Lehigh Valley International Airport said in a release that traffic has been “strong and steady” over the past year, with 912,256 passengers travelling through in 2022. This surpasses the 2019 total of 911,970 – the year before the COVID-19 pandemic set in.
Last year’s total is also a 21.2% increase from 2021, which was in turn a 92.4% increase from 2020.
LVIA also saw a record-setting year for air cargo, processing 237,945,266 pounds in 2022, a 2.4% increase from 2021.
In a statement Tom Stoudt, Executive Director of the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority, said post-pandemic traffic returned to the airport sooner than industry forecasts.
Stoudt also pointed to several other accomplishments in 2022, including serving over a quarter-million people during the “busiest summer travel season in recent history.”
He also noted that the airport added a bus service line through American Airlines to Philadelphia, and through United Airlines to Newark, implemented a new system to check TSA security checkpoint wait times, and made “significant progress” on infrastructure improvements.
One of these infrastructure improvements is the airport’s TSA Checkpoint/Terminal Connector Project, which LVIA said has passed the 70% completion mark and is expected to open in June.
The $35 million investment will include up to four TSA security screening lanes, improved vertical circulation equipment, shorter walking distances and enhanced air purification systems.
(Original air-date: 1/20/23)
