Passenger traffic at Detroit Metro Airport up 4.3% in 2019

Romulus — Passenger traffic at Detroit Metro Airport reached a record 36.8 million last year, up 4.3% from 2018, officials said.

“Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport had a very successful year in 2019,” Chad Newton, CEO of the Wayne County Airport Authority, said in a statement. "In one year, we’ve reached the highest number of total passengers, ranked highest in customer satisfaction according to the J.D. Power 2019 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, and earned top honors from Airports Council International as one of the best airports for customer service in the Airport Service Quality Survey.”

Last year, 36,769,279 travelers used the airport, according to its Department of Financial Planning & Analysis. Traffic rose by more than 1.5 million compared with 2018.

Officials attributed the rise to an increase in domestic passengers. Several domestic routes were added last year by Spirit Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Frontier Airlines.

They also said the number of outbound passengers visiting or residing in the Metro Detroit area, known as origin and destination traffic, was also up and set an all-time record in 2019. Origin and destination traffic increased nearly 6% for the year.