Passenger numbers for 2020 at La Crosse Airport down more than 50 percent

What started as a promising year for airline travel in La Crosse turned into a fight for survival in 2020. 

The La Crosse Regional Airport said 3,897 passengers took flights in and out of the city in December, which was half of the level from the same month of 2019. 

The unofficial year-end total was close to 44,000 passengers — only 46 percent of the previous year’s number, which exceeded 95,000. 

January had the highest total of passengers, with 7,604 people taking La Crosse flights, and February’s total of 7,195 was a 42 percent increase from the same month a year earlier.

After the COVID outbreak began in March, there were only 372 passengers in April.  

The La Crosse numbers are still better than the nationwide average. 

The TSA says 700,000 people flew in the U.S. on Monday, roughly one-third of the 1.9 million who flew on Jan. 11, 2020.