Passenger activity increased by 2.7% in 2017, making last year the busiest since 2009.  Altogether 2,885,327 passengers arrived and departed from TUL with March and October seeing the biggest increase in activity over the prior year.

Tulsa International Airport CEO, Mark VanLoh, credits the increase to Tulsa’s expanding economy and the airlines’ willingness to add capacity. VanLoh said, “Tulsa’s business community has been active over the past year with all sectors seeing an increased need for air travel.  Our airline partners responded with increased capacity to Dallas, Minneapolis and Charlotte and we continue to work with them to identify new service opportunities.”

Airline capacity is already looking up for 2018 with Frontier Airlines return to the Tulsa market with new service in March to Denver, followed by an April 8 start to San Diego and Orlando. Southwest Airlines also will be providing weekly non-stop service to Orlando beginning this June.

In addition to passenger activity, cargo activity for the year increased by 9.3%.  Over 117 million pounds of cargo passed through the airport with double-digit growth beginning in August.  Cargo activity ended the year strong with an increase of 29.6% in December.