Ontario International Airport continues to build momentum following a summer boost in international travel.
On Thursday, airport officials announced the travel hub recorded another month of growth in August, extending its consecutive-year-over-year increase streak to 54 months for passenger traffic and 14 months for air cargo, officials announced
ONT reported 646,820 passengers in August, a 0.5% increase over the same month last year. The total included 592,870 domestic travelers and 53,950 international passengers.
International travel is up 53.7% year-over-year, driven by successful new routes to Mexico and Taiwan launched earlier this summer.
In June, Taiwan-based Starlux Airlines launched new direct service between Ontario and Taipei. Those new flights helped ONT set a new record for international travelers in June—a record that would only stand for a few weeks.
In July, the Mexican ultra-low-cost carrier Volaris launched 14 new weekly flights between San Bernardino County and three destinations in Mexico, including daily service to Los Cabos.
From January through August, Ontario served more than 4.6 million travelers, up 1% compared with the same period in 2024. International traffic rose 14.2% to nearly 349,000, while domestic travel held steady. The airport’s top five carriers in August were Southwest Airlines, American, Frontier, United and Delta.
Cargo operations also contributed to the airport’s growth streak.
ONT handled more than 69,000 tons of cargo in August, up nearly 1% from last year. While freight volume fell by 8%, mail shipments surged 116%. Overall cargo tonnage through August reached nearly 540,000 tons, 9.2% more than the same stretch in 2024.
Cargo numbers have been positively affected by the U.S. Postal Service awarding a “major mail handling contract” to UPS, which operates a large cargo hub in Ontario.
“The fact total passenger and air cargo levels were still on the rise speaks to the resilience of our aviation and shipping partners and the strong appeal of our world-class facilities and services, not to mention the trust bestowed upon us by the Southern California communities we serve,” said Atif Elkadi, chief executive officer of the Ontario International Airport Authority.
The steady upward trend was further buoyed by a new customer satisfaction milestone.
ONT rose to No. 2 in the latest J.D. Power North America Airport Satisfaction Study for medium-sized airports.