{"id":8707802,"date":"2023-01-06T05:30:32","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T13:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eastbaytimes.com\/?p=8707802&preview=true&preview_id=8707802"},"modified":"2023-01-06T15:49:19","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T23:49:19","slug":"san-jose-oakland-airport-battle-regain-covid-passenger-economy-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eastbaytimes.com\/2023\/01\/06\/san-jose-oakland-airport-battle-regain-covid-passenger-economy-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose, Oakland airports battle to regain pre-COVID passenger levels"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"OAKLAND,
Passengers wait in line at a Southwest Airlines counter at Oakland International Airport, December 2022. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SAN JOSE — Passenger trips through the airports in San Jose and Oakland are cruising at levels that are well below the altitudes where they soared before the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n

The deadly bug unleashed an array of economic ailments on the travel markets and the hotel sector in the Bay Area and worldwide. The East Bay and South Bay airports have yet to fully recover from their prior maladies.<\/p>\n

Updated reports suggest that both San Jose International Airport and Oakland International Airport continue to struggle to reclaim the activity stratospheres they had reached prior to the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

During the month of November, San Jose airport handled 1.03 million passengers while Oakland airport accommodated slightly fewer than 972,500 passengers, according to separate reports released by the aviation hubs.<\/p>\n

Passenger activity during November was up 24.4% at San Jose airport compared with the same month in 2021, according to statistics that the South Bay airport posted.<\/p>\n

“We are pleased to see travelers continuing to return, and that they are choosing San Jose,” said Keonnis Taylor, a spokesperson for San Jose International Airport.<\/p>\n

In November, Oakland airport’s passenger activity was up 18.4% from the same month in 2021, the East Bay airport reported.<\/p>\n

“Oakland International Airport has surpassed 10 million passengers so far in 2022 with December totals still to come,” said Bryant Francis, director of aviation with the Port of Oakland, referring to the totals for the first 11 months of 2022.<\/p>\n

Both airports for several months have been showing sturdy upswings in passenger activity at the travel centers.<\/p>\n

Yet even with the improving trends, it’s clear that both airports have a long way to go to get back to where they were before the arrival of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

The shortfall in passengers becomes apparent in a comparison of the current yearly trends at San Jose and Oakland airports to 2019, the final year before the outbreak of the coronavirus, according to a Bay Area News Group review of the passenger statistics for both aviation hubs.<\/p>\n

Over the one-year period ending in November, San Jose International Airport handled 11.24 million passengers.<\/p>\n

San Jose’s passenger activity for the most recent 12-month period was 28.2% below the airport’s all-time record of 15.65 million passengers in 2019.<\/p>\n

During the 12 months that ended in November, Oakland International Airport accommodated 11.09 million passengers.<\/p>\n