Bradley’s holiday passenger traffic down 58% as airport steels for expected slow recovery

Holiday passenger traffic at Bradley International Airport dropped by 58% in 2020 compared with the same period a year before, another sign of a sustained downturn at the Windsor Locks airport and the broader commercial aerospace industry.

Outside holiday travel, Bradley has seen its daily levels of passenger traffic hover at about 75% lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, said Kevin Dillon, executive director of the quasi-public Connecticut Airport Authority, which oversees Bradley. 

“We’re expecting that we’re going to maintain this substantial drop in passenger traffic for the foreseeable future,” Dillon said. “There are people in the industry that are projecting that it’s going to be at least until 2023 or 2024 before we can get back to pre-2020 numbers.”

One major effect at airports will be increased competition for routes, Dillon said, especially at smaller regional airports like Bradley. That’s because airlines are cutting routes to cut costs, and consolidating operations at larger hubs like Boston and New York. 

CAA has kept a sharp focus on keeping airlines at Bradley, and even adding routes. In September, CAA announced new Bradley routes by JetBlue to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Cancun. In October Bradley added a route to Nashville by Southwest Airlines.

During the pandemic CAA has enacted a hiring freeze, cut operating expenses 10% and indefinitely postponed managerial raises, Dillon said, and the airport has reserves that ‒ in concert with federal aid ‒ will get Bradley through the difficult period from now and when commercial aerospace is expected to rebound in 2023 or ’24. 

But Bradley’s recovery will be closely tied with Connecticut’s economic recovery, Dillon said.

“How the regional economy recovers will be a good predictor [of Bradley’s recovery],” Dillon said. “A regional economy that is healthy… that’s the mainstay of an airport’s [success].”