Passenger traffic is edging closer to normal at the Lincoln Airport.
Nearly 16,000 passengers passed through the terminal in June, the airport's best month since February 2020 and triple the number from June of last year.
Airport Executive Director David Haring said the numbers show the "start of a recovery here in Lincoln."
That recovery is likely to be a slow process, however. While June passenger numbers were way up from where they were a year ago, they're still down by almost half from June 2019.
Part of that has to do with the number of flights available. June was the first full month with Delta Air Lines flights to Minneapolis since June 2020. And Delta still has not given any hint as to when or if it plans to reinstate flights to Atlanta.
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Another factor is that the Lincoln Airport is more popular with business travelers, and much of that market has yet to return, Haring said. Most air travel right now is leisure travel.
"It's great to see where we are just with leisure travel," Haring said during Thursday's monthly Airport Authority board meeting. "It will really take off when we get that business market back."
He estimated it could be anywhere from two to five years for business travel to fully recover.
The good news for the airport, Haring said, is that every time more service gets added, people are using it. In June, Delta's planes were 77% full on average, while United Airlines planes flying to Denver and Chicago were 90% full. He said anything above 75% is considered good.
"Right now, every time we have added back capacity, it's been filled," Haring said.
A Delta Air Lines flight to Minneapolis waits to depart last month at the Lincoln Airport. Thanks in large part to Delta reinstating the Minneapolis flight, June was the best month for passenger numbers at the airport in more than a year.