Milwaukee Mitchell Airport adds Caribbean flights as passenger numbers continue to grow

Following a successful spring , things at the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport have kept going strong this summer.

Monthly traveler numbers have continued to outperform last year's, and the airport plans to add two seasonal international flights to the Caribbean in time to escape the winter cold.

In the first six months of 2024, the airport served 3,158,314 travelers ― 10.91% more than the same period in 2023. In a news release Thursday , the airport said it's "well-positioned" to meet its goal of serving 6.3 million passengers by the end of 2024.

"It's great news that more people are choosing MKE for their air travel," the airport's director of public affairs and marketing, Harold Mester, wrote in an email to the Journal Sentinel. "Airlines make the decisions on where to fly their planes. The more that we all choose MKE, the easier it is for airlines to add more flights. Airlines added more service this year, giving travelers more opportunities to fly to more places. That's why we all need to fly from our hometown airport."

The airport had just over six million passengers in 2023, evidence that travel was finally rebounding after the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019 and earlier, the airport had between 6.5 million and 7 million passengers annually; that tanked to 2.63 million in 2020.

Each month this year, Mitchell has had "significant growth" in monthly passenger totals compared to 2023:

• January: 5.5% increase
• February: 16% increase
• March: 14% increase
• April: 7.7% increase
• May: 9.7% increase
• June: 12.2% increase

Airlines serving MKE offered about 60,000 more seats on flights to spring break destinations this March ― 19% more than in March 2023, the airport reported. In fact, so many travelers flew out of Milwaukee during the spring break season that, at one point, the airport's roughly 12,000 parking spaces were about 98% full .

Since the first half of 2023, the airport has added year-round, nonstop flights to Kansas City and Salt Lake City . This summer, it also provided seasonal service to San Diego and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., Mester said. However, the Raleigh-Durham service was suspended after just a few months when Frontier Airlines cut numerous routes nationwide, and the San Diego service is no longer listed online on the airport's list of destinations .

Recently, Mitchell also added additional flights to existing markets across the country, including Dallas-Fort Worth and Baltimore, Mester said.

Milwaukee airport is adding flights to the Dominican Republic and Jamaica this winter

Just in time for winter vacation, the airport plans to add two new seasonal flights to tropical destinations via budget carrier Sun Country Airlines:

• Nonstop flights to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, begin Dec. 26 and run through April 7. Flights will initially operate twice weekly and will increase to four times per week, beginning Jan. 23.
• Nonstop service to Montego Bay, Jamaica, begins Jan. 25 and will operate twice weekly through April 5.

Sun Country is also expanding its other seasonal flights out of Milwaukee during the mid-December through early April winter season. It'll offer daily service to Cancun, Mexico, and nonstop flights to Fort Myers, Florida; Orlando; and Phoenix on peak travel days.

Journal Sentinel reporter David Clarey contributed to this report.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Mitchell Airport adds Caribbean flights as passenger numbers continue to grow