Business

Passenger numbers for 2020 at La Crosse Airport down more than 50 percent

Published

3 years ago

January 12, 2021

What started as a promising year for airline travel in La Crosse turned into a fight for survival in 2020.

The La Crosse Regional Airport said 3,897 passengers took flights in and out of the city in December, which was half of the level from the same month of 2019.

The unofficial year-end total was close to 44,000 passengers — only 46 percent of the previous year’s number, which exceeded 95,000.

January had the highest total of passengers, with 7,604 people taking La Crosse flights, and February’s total of 7,195 was a 42 percent increase from the same month a year earlier.

After the COVID outbreak began in March, there were only 372 passengers in April.

The La Crosse numbers are still better than the nationwide average.

The TSA says 700,000 people flew in the U.S. on Monday, roughly one-third of the 1.9 million who flew on Jan. 11, 2020.

Brad Williams

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.