SAN JOSE — San Jose International Airport has lost more altitude for passenger trips in what remains a tough battle for the aviation hub to return to its pre-coronavirus heights.
The struggles that San Jose Airport is experiencing are a reminder the aviation hub has yet to reclaim the level of passenger activity it enjoyed in 2019, the final full year before the onset of economic maladies that the coronavirus unleashed.
A jetliner approaches Oakland International Airport in April 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
The air travel hub handled about 891,300 passengers during April, a performance that represented mixed results for the South Bay aviation center, according to information posted by San Jose International Airport.
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Passenger trips in April 2025 were down 7.8% compared with the 966,300 passengers that the airport accommodated in April 2024.
In a hopeful sign, however, passenger trips at the South Bay airport have increased for two straight months, in March and then in April, an assessment of the airport’s passenger statistics shows.
San Jose Airport trips nosedived to a recent low in February, when the aviation hub handled just 746,200 passengers. That was the weakest month for passenger trips since February 2022.
Over the 12 months that ended in April, San Jose International Airport handled 11.57 million passengers. That was 1.7% below the 11.77 million passengers that the aviation complex handled in 2024.
The airport’s sputtering performance also means San Jose Airport remains greatly distant from its pre-coronavirus altitude.
That shortfall compared to the pre-COVID year holds true for the other two major Bay Area airports.
San Francisco International Airport, for the 12 months that ended in March, handled 52.97 million passengers. That was 7.9% below the 57.49 million passengers SFO handled in 2019.
Oakland International Airport, over the one-year period ending in March, handled 10.41 million passengers. That was down 22.2% from the 13.38 million passengers the East Bay airport handled in 2019.
In March, Oakland Airport accommodated nearly 784,600 passengers, which was down 13.2% from the same month the year before.
Similarly, the 11.57 million passengers San Jose Airport handled over the most recent one-year period was down 26.1% from the 15.65 million passengers the airport handled in 2019.
The 2019 passenger total was an all-time record for San Jose Airport.
The Memorial Day weekend, a normally busy stretch, could help kick off an encouraging summer travel season for San Jose International Airport.