La Crosse airport numbers back to nearly normal — a trend across Wisconsin — as vaccine requirement set to begin

Passenger numbers at the La Crosse airport are almost back up to the levels reported toward the end of 2019.

The 7,600 passengers who flew through the La Crosse Regional Airport in September was just 4 percent less than the number from the same month two years ago — before the pandemic started. Last November, there were 3,700 passengers.

The airport on French Island has had at least 7,000 passengers six months in a row now.

The same bounceback in air travel also is being seen at other Wisconsin airports, including Madison and Milwaukee.

At Mitchell Field in Milwaukee, holiday travel is predicted to be down 7 percent from 2019 figures but double the volume seen last year at Thanksgiving.

Dane County Regional Airport has seen traffic increase every month this year since the COVID-19 vaccine became widely available.

Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport director Marty Piette says the size of the airport means even on a busy day, travelers are unlikely to wait long at TSA checkpoints.

“We are in constant communication with our TSA stakeholders just to keep apprised of the situation,” he said. “But from a staffing standpoint, we’re going to be OK here.”

Still, airport officials are encouraging travels to arrive early — at least two hours in Milwaukee and 90 minutes in Madison.

The federal Transportation Security Administration isn’t expecting any major disruptions for holiday travel.

The Thanksgiving holiday coincides with the start of a vaccine requirement for federal airport security officers. TSA workers must be vaccinated by Nov. 22, unless the Biden administration honors a request from the American Federation of Government Employees asking to delay the deadline.

In a letter to White House officials, the union cites a confusing “double standard” because federal contractors are not required to be vaccinated until early next year.