Airport passenger traffic inches upward

THUNDER BAY — Passenger levels at Thunder Bay Airport are pacing slightly ahead of last year.

Figures released Monday by the airport show just over 400,000 travellers moved through the airport between January and July.

That is marginally ahead of last year at the same time, and it shows the airport has not yet rebounded completely from the pandemic years when travel plummeted everywhere.

In 2019 – just before the pandemic – passenger volume between January and July was roughly 480,000.

During the same period at the height of the pandemic in 2021, it was only about 120,000.

The passenger volume for all of 2019 was 833,000, compared with 714,000 last year.

New CEO Graham Ingham has stated he believes this year will finish with a similar number to 2023's total.

Passenger levels will conceivably get a boost when Porter Airlines' new service between Thunder Bay and Pearson International Airport begins in October.

Thunder Bay Airport's all-time record of 869,000 passengers was established in 2018.