Albuquerque Sunport seeing more traffic

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Albuquerque Sunport said it’s seen the highest levels of passenger travel since before the pandemic started.

"Our last seven-day average was just under 13,000 passengers which is a huge improvement over 2020 obviously, but that puts us down only 26% from pre-pandemic levels, so we’re feeling really good about that number," said Stephanie Kitts, Sunport spokesperson.

Kitts said the airlines are planning to resume or add more direct daily flights to keep up with demand.

"A lot of flights were either completely paused during COVID-19 or any many cases we just lost a lot of frequency because people simply weren’t traveling,” she said.

Kitts also said to arrive early as the summer travel season hits full throttle.

"The biggest thing right now is TSA is seeing longer lines. If you were traveling during the pandemic, you got really used to no lines right? So now we’re sort of reminding people to make sure they arrive with plenty of time to get through security and that means two hours, even here at the Sunport, especially if you have a really early morning flight," added Kitts.