New Year For Air Travelers

February 16th, 2022 | Airport News

Mask mandate in effect until March 18^th; Arrive early for morning departures

(Hanover Township, PA) – Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE) had a steady flow of passenger traffic for the start of 2022.

49,787 passengers traveled through ABE in January – a 111.4 percent increase from 2021.   

Month                Passengers          Percentage increase        Month                Passengers

Jan. ‘22                 49,787                            111.4%                   Jan. ‘21                    23,545

“We kicked off last year (2021) still under the continuing effects of the pandemic due to limited COVID vaccine availability, and a lingering hesistancy to travel.  We’ve reached a different phase of recovery now and we remain confident that aviation will not be faced with any dramatic declines in traffic as we takeoff into 2022,” said Thomas R. Stoudt, Executive Director, Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority (LNAA).

By the numbers, United reported a massive passenger traffic increase of 147%, Delta jumped 120%, Allegiant moved up 142.5%, and American finished 52% ahead of last December.

Important for travelers:  To ensure you don’t miss your flight at ABE, we advise all passengers departing between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. to arrive at least 2 hours before their morning flight (especially Thursdays and Sundays) to ensure processing through the TSA checkpoint in enough time to reach your gate for on-time boarding.  

“Give yourself extra time. Airlines are starting to increase capacity with Allegiant adding two early morning departures on Thursdays and Sundays.  If you cut it to close, you might miss your flight,” said Colin Riccobon, Director of Public & Government Relations.

Reminder:  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) requires face masks for all individuals while at transportation hubs through at least March 18, 2022. 

21,717,449 pounds of air cargo was processed through Lehigh Valley International Airport in January – a sharp increase of 22.2% from Jan. 2021.

Month                Cargo (lbs.)              Percentage increase              Month              Cargo (lbs.)

Jan ’22               21,717,449                             22.3%                          Jan.’21              17,760,500

“Fresh off a record setting year in 2021 with over 232 million pounds of air cargo processed at ABE, the high volume of air cargo activity in January seems to indicate that the movement of goods by air will not be slowing down in the Lehigh Valley during 2022,” said Stoudt.