CLEVELAND — The number of passengers through Cleveland Hopkins International Airport has nearly rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. However, the airport’s non-stop flight options have decreased significantly over the past decade.
This month, Hopkins reported nearly 9.9 million passengers traveling through the airport in 2023. The number represented a more than 98% recovery from 2019. Throughout the year, passenger activity continued to strengthen, and December’s numbers were essentially on par with December of 2019.
“I’m headed to Arizona, getting a little sunshine. You know the sun doesn’t come out very often here,” laughed traveler Kenyotta Jones.
The Cleveland native was about to board a non-stop flight to Phoenix on Friday. She said flying non-stop is almost always a high priority when traveling.
“It’ll be like +1 day [with connecting flights],” she said. “Who has time to wait a whole extra day for travel? I could be on my trip still.”
Wayne Gross, a passenger from Canton, told News 5 he prefers Cleveland to the Akron-Canton airport because it offers the non-stop flights he needs for his monthly travel.
“United has a direct flight to San Francisco and United has a direct flight to Denver. It’s very important,” he said.
Hopkins currently offers non-stop flights to about 40 different destinations. The pre-pandemic selection included 51 different cities. A decade ago, it offered more than 70 options.
“The type of traveler and where travelers are heading to is quite different today than it was in 2013 or even 2019,” said John Hogan, the airport’s air service development manager.
In 2014, United Airlines shut down its hub in Cleveland, and the airport lost many of its non-stop flights. 2023 offered 44,200 non-stop flights, compared with 83,000 in 2014.
Hogan said fewer flights are partially because planes now seat double the passengers they previously did. Additionally, the demand for leisure travel is outpacing business travel, so the airport is catering to more vacation destinations.
“The needs of Clevelanders do come first because that’s what’s going to fill up an airplane,” Hogan explained. “What is the demand for certain destinations? And we put the two together and hopefully the airline will say, ‘Hey let’s take a chance on this and go for it.”
The needs of Cleveland travelers are also prioritized because, more than ever before, passengers are local.
“Almost 99% of our travelers are now originating in Cleveland and departing from Cleveland. So that puts stress on the ‘front door,’ if you will,” Hogan said.
Evolving priorities and aging infrastructure are also influencing a $2 billion 20-year renovation project. The plans, which are still being finalized, include improvements to the 1950s-era main terminal and concourses, ticketing/check-in space and an expanded security checkpoint. The roads, ground transportation center, public parking and transit accessibility will also be prioritized.
“It’s been updated a little bit along the way, but it hasn’t been transformed into a true 21st century airport experience,” said Baiju Shah, the president and CEO of Greater Cleveland Partnership.
The organization leads an air services task force, gathering feedback about the airport’s future from some of Northeast Ohio’s largest employers and top business leaders.
“What they want to see is more flights to more destinations, more on-time performance from our carriers no matter what carrier it is and they want to have a good traveling experience through Hopkins,” Shah said.
Comments from the business community, along with data collected on Clevelanders’ travel destinations, are informing efforts to recruit new non-stop flights and other airport investments.
“The airport truly is a reflection of the community,” Hogan said.
In the past year, the airport welcomed new non-stop destinations to Dublin, Puerto Rico and more. Frontier Airlines also announced plans to create a crew base in Cleveland.
Both the airport and GCP said they’re optimistic about the coming years, and they expect planned improvements to set the pace for the future of travel.
“With an eye towards what travel’s going to look like in the next 50 years, not just what it’s looked like for the last 50 years,” Shah said.
This year, the airport plans to choose a design firm to finalize Cleveland Hopkins’ master plan. Construction is slated to begin in 2025, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the airport.
