Passenger traffic at Denver International Airport continued to drop last month, a victim of the economy and airline capacity reductions.
Airport officials reported Wednesday that 4,192,174 passengers used DIA in May, a 5.8 percent decrease from the 4,450,742 passengers in May 2008.
“Even with the decline, it was DIA’s third-busiest May since opening for business in February 1995,” a DIA statement said.
DIA’s passenger count for the first five months of 2009 was 19,628,746, which was down 5.3 percent from the 20,721,391 passengers recorded for the same period in 2008.
Of the three largest airlines, Southwest posted a 60.9 percent gain in passengers in May compared with May 2008. United’s count was up 2.6 percent, not including its regional affiliates, and Frontier was down 8.9 percent.
A record 51.2 million passengers used DIA last year.
Operations in May were down 6.2 percent from May 2008, with operations for the year dropping 4.3 percent.
International passenger traffic plummeted 30.4 percent in May compared with May 2008, air mail plunged 45.1 percent, cargo dipped 17.6 percent, and freight and express tumbled 16.2 percent.
The May passenger-traffic report was the fifth consecutive month of declining passenger traffic and the seventh monthly dip out of the past eight months. Traffic was up only in December, which was 4.8 percent above December 2007.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
