Air travel is bouncing back in Missouri. See how airport traffic has changed since 2020

Four years after the onset of the COVID-19 devastated the travel industry, more Americans than ever before are taking to the skies.

Sunday, July 7, saw a record 3 million travelers go through American airports. But not all states have returned to pre-pandemic levels of air travel yet — including Missouri.

In 2020, airport traffic in Missouri suffered a 60% decline in 2020 from the year before. But after distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine began in December 2020, travel restrictions started to be relaxed and more people started flying again.

Three years later, airport traffic has bounced back but still isn’t quite back to pre-pandemic levels in Missouri — the same as in 24 other states, including neighboring Kansas. In 2023, Missouri’s airport traffic was down 4% since 2019.

The U.S. Department of Transportation publishes data on the number of passengers flying to or from a given airport. This chart shows the number of passengers who flew to or from a Missouri airport from 2019 to 2023.

Missouri’s most-used airport is the St. Louis Lambert International Airport, with a combined 14.6 million passengers arriving and departing from airport in 2023. That’s more than half of Missouri’s total passenger volume.

The Kansas City International Airport accounts for another 40% of Missouri’s air traffic, with a combined 11.3 million passengers departing and arriving in 2023, according to federal data. The KC airport opened its new single terminal in February 2023 and has since celebrated a number of passenger milestones and growing national recognition.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that he expects the current record-breaking travel to continue nationwide in the coming months.

This story was originally published July 15, 2024 at 6:00 AM.