From Columbia Metropolitan Airport – Final numbers are in, and in 2022 Columbia Metropolitan Airport welcomed more than 1 million passengers through the airport – a 21% increase over 2021’s passenger traffic.

In total, CAE saw 527,599 enplanements (those travelers starting their travel journey at CAE) and a total of 1,063,630 total passengers through the airport – including those passengers with one-way tickets to CAE.

“The consistent year-over-year growth in passenger traffic CAE has had since 2020 has been welcomed,” said Mike Gula, Executive Director of the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. “We are thankful for the ongoing support of this community in utilizing this airport. With the sustained increase in passenger traffic, CAE will be positioned to see additional air service in 2023, as well as infrastructure and in-terminal updates and expansions that will make traveling through the airport that much easier for our valued passengers.”

CAE’s passenger traffic since 2019:

• 2019 – 1,353,788 – *10-year record for CAE
• 2020 – 577,187
• 2021 – 877,806

CAE saw a significant spike in passenger traffic in the summer months of 2022 – with June seeing 103,686 passengers, July seeing 100,656 passengers and August seeing 94,864 passengers respectively – CAE had roughly 299,200 passengers through the airport during this specific time period. By way of comparison, during those same months in 2021, CAE saw roughly 259,600 passengers – a 15.24% increase year over year for June, July and August.

CAE’s air service also saw a notable uptick in flight options for passengers toward the end of 2022 heading into 2023:

• In November of 2022, American Airlines announced that it would be restarting its nonstop service from CAE to LGA (LaGuardia Airport). *This will be the second nonstop to LGA for CAE. Delta Air Lines also serves CAE to LGA.
• In December of 2022, American Airlines announced it would be increasing CAE’s nonstop flights from five to seven times per day between CAE and CLT (Charlotte Douglas International Airport).
• And United Airlines announced in late December that they too would be increasing service to three times per day between CAE and ORD (Chicago O’Hare International Airport).

“Our ongoing air service efforts have paid off as we see an increase of air service options for our passengers,” said Kim J. Crafton, Director of Marketing and Air Service Development. “Increasing routes and nonstop destinations is always a top priority for our team. Additionally, we have had a number of positive conversations with several low-cost carriers that will hopefully come to fruition in 2023 for CAE and the Columbia community.” For a complete list of all of CAE’s nonstop destinations, please visit www.flycae.com.