Summer’s last hurrah is a boon for the San Antonio airport.
Airport officials are expecting over 173,000 passengers to fly through the San Antonio International Airport (SAT) over the Labor Day weekend, Aug. 29 through Sept. 2.
That’s an increase of about 4,000 passengers more than in 2023 and over 50,000 more than in 2021 when the world was just starting to emerge from pandemic lockdowns.
The long weekend is the traditional end of the summer travel season, a period when SAT — and the nation — broke multiple passenger count records.
“Last month, we surpassed one million passengers in July alone,” the city’s Director of Airports Jesus Saenz said in a statement. “It was our second time breaking one million in one month. And we’re still on our record-breaking monthly streak since May 2023.”
The summer’s air travel volumes were the highest in history for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
TSA has estimated it will screen more than 17 million people at airports across the country during what is expected to be the busiest Labor Day travel period on record.
Friday will be TSA’s highest-volume day of the weekend while SAT officials said Sunday will likely be its busiest.
Domestic travel is up 9% overall for the Labor Day weekend, but international travel is down 4% compared to 2023, according to data from the travel booking site AAA.
The cost of domestic travel is down 2% with top Labor Day destinations including Orlando, New York, Boston, Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago and San Francisco.
SAT officials attribute some of the increase in travel to new nonstop options such as Querétaro in Mexico, Frankfurt in Germany, and Philadelphia, as well as a greater number of daily flights on existing routes.
With the increased travel, vehicle parking is in big demand at the San Antonio airport. Saenz said recently that the parking garage has been filled to capacity every day during the summer.
There are more than 9,000 total parking spaces in the garages and on surface lots, which includes a 600-space valet service.
Due to the number of passengers expected this weekend, the airport encourages travelers to arrive at least two hours before boarding time for domestic flights and at least three hours before international flights.
