Press Releases

Passenger volume continued to expand last month at Baton Rouge Metro Airport (BTR). A total of 58,256 passengers traveled through the airport in June 2022, a 7% increase over June 2021. BTR’s year-to-date passenger count through June is up 40% at 308,844.

Mike Edwards, BTR’s Director of Aviation, said the airport has experienced a steady recovery of passenger demand since the pandemic lows. “We anticipate reaching about 85% of our pre-pandemic 2019 passenger volume by the end of this year,” said Edwards. “We are grateful to our loyal passengers for making this happen.” He noted that BTR flights are running high load factors, or percentage of seats filled, which have been exceeding 80%.

A nationwide trend of flight reductions by airlines due to staffing shortages, particularly among pilots, has made securing more flights and higher seating capacity a challenge for airports. However, additional flights are scheduled for BTR in upcoming months with American adding a Dallas (DFW) hub flight in August and another Charlotte (CLT) hub flight in September. United has scheduled another Houston (IAH) flight in September. Delta Air Lines is continuing to operate all mainline, 112-seat Boeing 717 jets at BTR with multi-class seating options.

The Baton Rouge Metro Airport is a major economic asset to the region, supporting nearly $1.1 billion in economic output, a figure that includes more than 4,500 combined direct and indirect jobs.

Contact: Jim Caldwell

Air Service Development, Marketing & Public Relations Manager

Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport

Phone 225-931-9098

jcaldwell@brla.gov