Valley airports see fewer passengers, but remain optimistic

RIO GRANDE VALLEY – Passenger boardings since 2007 have decreased at all three Rio Grande Valley Airports, but the statistics for the Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport have remained the most consistent.

However, Brownsville airport’s boardings have remained substantially lower than at the other two airports.

In 2007 more than 878,000 passengers passed through Valley International Airport (VIA) in Harlingen.

At McAllen Miller International Airport (MMIA) that year, more than 845,000 travelers landed or departed.

Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport had more than 185,000 travelers pass through its gates in 2007.

Since that year, VIA and MMIA boardings have been neck-and-neck, with VIA losing its supremacy in 2009, regaining it in 2010, maintaining the lead in 2011, and then falling behind in 2012, with 650,369 passengers at VIA and 660,548 at MMIA.

Between 2007 and 2008, boardings decreased almost 6 percent at VIA; 10.47 percent at Brownsville; and almost 10 percent at MMIA. By the end of 2012, VIA had almost 43 percent of the Valley’s air passenger market, Brownsville had nearly 11 percent, and MMIA had 46 percent.