Kansas City International Airport Reports December and Year-End 2021 Passenger Traffic

The City of Kansas City, Missouri, Aviation Department reports that 7,667,004 passengers traveled through Kansas City International Airport in 2021, up 70.8 percent from 2020 and down 34.9 percent from 2019 before the pandemic. December totals were up 113.1 percent from 2021 figures, with 730,781 passengers arriving and departing through KCI’s gates during the month, down 22.7 percent from 2019 before the pandemic.

“We are encouraged to see traffic rebounding as passengers become accustomed to air travel during the pandemic,” said Kansas City Director of Aviation. “We are hopeful that normalcy in our world and in air travel settle in during 2022.”

Air cargo tonnages, which consist of both freight and mail transported by air, for all carriers at KCI were up 36.2 percent in December with a total of 26.1 million pounds handled. For 2021, 245.8 million pounds of air cargo were handled, up 24.0 percent. Air freight handled at KCI during December amounted to 25.9 million pounds, up 36.0 percent year-over-year. For all of 2021, air freight was up 24.7 percent with a total of 243.7 million pounds handled. Air mail for December was up 68.9 percent from December 2020 with 252,621 pounds handled. Air mail for 2021 was down 26.5 percent from 2020 with 2.1 million pounds handled. The number of peak-day scheduled aircraft departures for December 2021 was 125. Service was offered to 42 nonstop markets. There was an average of 30,021 arriving and departing scheduled seats in the market each day. The all-cargo carriers reported 12 daily departures for December.

The Kansas City Airport System is an Enterprise Fund Department of the City of Kansas City and is supported wholly by airport user charges. No general fund tax revenues are used for the administration, promotion, operation, or maintenance of the airports in the system.