Tucson airport saw traffic plunge in 2020 as COVID-19 prompted flight cuts

Passenger traffic at Tucson International Airport plummeted by more than half in 2020 — to levels not seen in nearly 40 years — as the COVID-19 pandemic prompted airlines to cancel flights and ground aircraft.

Fewer than 1.7 million travelers passed through TIA in 2020, the first time since 1982 that the airport served fewer than 2 million passengers, officials of the Tucson Airport Authority said during a hybrid virtual and socially distanced in-person annual meeting.

Total passengers at TIA for the calendar year fell to 1,698,777, down 55.3% from 3,797,201 in 2019.

Danette Bewley, the airport authority’s president and CEO, said the TIA had four straight years of traffic growth and was looking forward to topping 4 million passengers for 2020 before the pandemic hit.

DOWN BUT NOT OUT

Despite the decline, Bewley told authority members that COVID-19 “has not beaten us, and we will persevere,” though she acknowledged that the airport’s recovery “may take a few years.”

Bewley credited the authority’s “TUS Cares” initiative for helping the airport maintain higher percentages of traveling passengers than most other airports and the national average.

The airport spent more than $250,000 on equipment and infrastructure improvements to improve cleaning and sanitization of the facility – an effort that earned TIA an accreditation for cleanliness from the Global Biorisk Advisory Council.

RESTORING FLIGHTS

Bewley noted that the airport authority’s effort to restore helped TIA recover all but five of 19 nonstop destinations served before the pandemic, and three more are due to be restored in February and March.

In October, Southwest added new nonstop flights between TIA and Houston Hobby Airport and in December the airline announced it would start new nonstop flights to Oakland, California, on March 11.

Though all airlines at TIA reported declines, American remained the airport’s busiest carrier last year, followed by Southwest, Delta and United.

DUSENBERRY ELECTED CHAIR

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During the annual meeting, the Tucson Airport Authority elected longtime board member Bruce Dusenberry chairman of the board for 2021, replacing Taunya Villicana to the rotating position.

Two new directors also were elected to the board: Sally Fernandez, president of Safety Dynamics Inc., and Todd Jackson, a partner in the law firm of Oden & Jackson, P.C.

Other board officers for 2021 are Vice Chair Mike Hammond, founder and principal of Cushman & Wakefield/PICOR Commercial Real Estate Services; Secretary Keri Silvyn, partner in Lazarus & Silvyn, P.C.; and second-term treasurer Bill Assenmacher, chief executive officer of CAID Industries.

A third-generation Tucsonan long active in local civic affairs and charitable organizations, Dusenberry was a business attorney for 17 years, and was president of Horizon Moving Systems for 20 years until the business was sold in 2013. He is now manager of Horizon Moving Group, a commercial real estate business.

In 1981, Dusenberry’s mother, Katie, led the airport authority as its first woman president (the title for the board head used before 1998).

NEW MEMBERS, CATEGORY

Among three new members elected to join the airport authority, two — Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Pima County Economic Development Director John Moffatt — were named “advocacy members,” a new, non-voting membership created for local government officials.

The new category is intended to “recognize the growing roles played by local governments in economic development,” without veering from the authority’s original intent as an independent, business-run group, the authority said.

The advocacy members will not count toward the maximum 60 active members that comprise TAA membership, and may not vote on authority matters or serve on its board.

The airport authority also elected one new active member — local real-estate executive Brandt Hazen, president of the commercial real-estate firm Hazen Enterprises.

Hazen is a past president of the Tucson Conquistadores and liaison with the PGA Tour and is chair of the Board of Directors of Intermountain Centers, which focuses on serving behavioral health issues of adjudicated juveniles.

Photos: Tucson International Airport history in photos