San Jose airport passenger activity flattens as trips start to ebb

One bright spot: South Bay Airport continues to handle one million passengers per month.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Passenger trip activity at San Jose International Airport is clearly declining, which could be a warning sign for Silicon Valley’s economy.

One ray of hope in an otherwise bleak regular report from San Jose airport officials: For six months in a row, the South Bay aviation hub has handled at least one million passengers per month.

According to officials, San Jose International Airport handled just under 1.02 million passengers in September.

According to the airport, September passenger trip activity was down 2.6% from the same month the previous year.

The 1.02 million passenger trips last month were also 6.5% lower than the 1.09 million passenger trips in August.

The airport served approximately 12.12 million passengers in the fiscal year that ended in September 2023. This was 12.4% more than the 10.78 million passengers handled by the San Jose airport in the year ending September 2022.

However, one thing is certain. San Jose International Airport traffic remains far below the all-time highs set in 2019, the final year before state and local governments imposed widespread business closures to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

The 12.12 million passengers handled by San Jose Airport in the last 12 months are 22.6% lower than the 15.65 million passengers handled in 2019, an all-time high for a calendar year.

Similarly, passenger totals at both Oakland International Airport and San Francisco International Airport remain significantly lower than pre-coronavirus levels.