Passenger activity at Lafayette Regional Airport (LFT) last year set a new all-time record for the number of passengers, according to Lafayette Airport Commission Chairman Paul Segura. A total of 530,501 passengers flew into and out of the airport in 2019, topping the previous number of 501,101 set in 2014.

"2019 was an incredible year, boosted by the addition of Frontier Airlines and their seasonal flights," says LAC Chairman Paul Segura. "We're grateful to the travelers of Acadiana who flew Lafayette this past year. Without their support, a record-setting year would not have been possible. As a commission and staff, we look for ways to improve the travel experience from LFT in any way we can and will continue to do so. Hopefully, we will see another great year in 2020 as we move closer to the opening of the New LFT Terminal."

LFT Executive Director Steven Picou says there were several contributing factors that made 2019 a record-setting year. "We had additional air service options for most of the year and, in some cases, larger aircraft made more seats available," says Picou. "Load factors, the number of seats occupied verses the number of seats available on flights, were high all year across all the airlines."

To close out the year, in December a total of 43,201 passengers chose LFT. Load factors continued to be high in December for all three carriers. Leading the way was Delta Airlines/Atlanta with 86.7 percent of seats filled, followed by United Airlines/Houston with 73.6 percent and American Eagle/Dallas with 70.2 percent.

Cargo numbers for 2019 were impressive as well. A total of 8,157,365 pounds of cargo were loaded on planes and 19,444,023 was off loaded from planes, which was also the most ever on record.