PHOENIX -- Passenger traffic at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix increased by 5.3 percent last year from 2010 as traffic continued to rebound from the Great Recession.
The airport served 40.6 million passengers last year, up from 38.6 million in 2010. The airport served a record 42.2 million passengers in 2007 before the recession sent numbers plummeting to 37.8 million in 2009.
The number of takeoffs and landings has continued to drop as airlines cut flights and pack more passengers into planes, but finally increased slightly last year. The airport had 539,000 takeoffs and landings in 2007 and that number dropped to 449,000 by 2010. A 2 percent increase brought the number to 462,000 last year.
Sky Harbor officials are planning for passenger traffic to reach 50 million by 2030.
