Boosted by the
Republican National Convention, passenger traffic at
Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport rose 6% in July compared to a year ago.
The airport had a surge of activity during the RNC week. On the peak arrival days leading up to the convention, United Airlines added eight non-stop roundtrip flights from Washington-Dulles, two from Washington-National, and two from Denver. American Airlines added a nonstop roundtrip flight from New York LaGuardia. In addition, larger aircraft were used on some flights for peak RNC arrival days.
The airport served 579,768 passengers in July, its second busiest month of the year only behind March, when 603,547 passengers used the airport during the busy spring break season.
For the first seven months of the year, passenger traffic at Mitchell International is up 10.1% to 3,738,082.
That comes after passenger traffic at the airport was up 10.6% in 2023 to 6,015,731. The airport is expecting 6.3 million passengers in 2024.
While the increase in passenger activity at Mitchell International is significant, it still remains below pre-pandemic levels. Passenger traffic at the airport during the first half of 2019 was 3,430,771, which is 7.9% higher than the traffic at MKE during the first half of this year. Passenger traffic at the airport during the first half of 2018 was even higher, at 3,573,730.