La Crosse Regional Airport sees fewer passengers in 2024

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WLCX) – The La Crosse Regional Airport had fewer passengers in 2024.

That’s according to data presented to the city’s Aviation Board on Tuesday.

The number of enplanements, excluding charter flights, was 38,339 in 2024. That’s down from 41,457 the year before.

The number is also a steep drop from pre-pandemic levels, when the airport had 96,374 passengers in 2018 and 95,305 in 2019.

While the year-over-year trend is down slightly, the airport did find some consistency in the year after a slow start to 2024, in part caused by a far lower number of available seats. From April through December, there were at least 3,000 passengers each month.

The available flight seats early in the year hampered the customer totals somewhat as number of available seats was the lowest from January to March of 2024. On the year, available seats went up by over 10,000 from 2023.

The airport also reported increased revenue in virtually every category year over year in December, from car rentals to shop sales to parking.

La Crosse County officials passed a resolution that would match up to $250,000 in funds for the airport to attract a second airline earlier this month. Delta left service at the airport in 2023, leading to a drop in many key metrics. Airport officials said it will take about $1.5 million to attract a second airline to La Crosse.