SANTA ANA, Calif. - Airline passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport increased in January 2022 as compared to January 2021. In January 2022, the Airport served 630,402 passengers, an increase of 222.8% when compared with the January 2021 passenger traffic count of 195,290. There was a decrease of 21.8% when compared to 806,386 passengers in January 2020 and a decrease of 23.1% when compared to January 2019 of 819,358 passengers.
Commercial aircraft operations increased 73.0% and commuter aircraft operations increased 64.6% when compared with January 2021 levels. Levels compared to 2020 show commercial aircraft operations of 6,851 increased 5.9% and commuter aircraft operations of 615 decreased 20.5%. January 2022 in comparison to 2019 levels, commercial aircraft operations of 7,527 decreased 3.6% and commuter aircraft operations of 347 increased 40.9%.
Total aircraft operations increased in January 2022 as compared with the same month in 2021. In January 2022, there were 24,350 total aircraft operations (take-offs and landings), a 33.3% increase compared to 18,267 total aircraft operations in January 2021. Total aircraft operations increased 7.3% compared to 22,685 in January 2020 and increased 6.8% compared to the January 2019 22,810 total.
General aviation activity, which accounted for 68% of the total aircraft operations during January 2022, increased 20.7% when compared with January 2021, and increased 9.4% when compared to general aviation activity of 15,141 in January 2020, which accounted for 66.7% of total aircraft operations. When compared to January 2019 general aviation activity of 14,893, which accounted for 65.3% of total aircraft operations, it increased 11.2%.
The top three airlines in January 2022 based on passenger count were Southwest Airlines (230,713), American Airlines (95,762) and United Airlines (88,285).