CLT passenger forecast stays flat after record-high crowds

This article appeared in the April 13, 2026, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, which provides Charlotte with dependable local information.

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Charlotte’s airport is forecasting that the number of passengers flying into and out of Charlotte will remain flat into next year, at a level about 8% lower than its 2024 peak.

The airport, which has grown steadily over the past few decades and is widely regarded as a major economic engine for the Charlotte region, has taken a breather from passenger growth, which airport officials say stems from a variety of factors.

In a presentation to a Charlotte City Council committee last week, airport chief financial officer Mike Hill said having fewer passengers is both “good and bad.” He said that “from the financial side of the house, we want to get those passenger numbers up, because they buy more hot dogs [and] they park the cars more often.”

But he also said that having fewer passengers will avoid a repeat of 2024, when the airport had record-low customer-service survey scores that resulted from “cramming nearly 60 million customers into a building that quite frankly is not big enough to handle it.”

The airport handled 57.4 million passengers in fiscal year 2024, but since then, those numbers have fallen. It’s forecasting 52.8 million this fiscal year, which ends in June, and 52.9 million for the following 12 months.

Hill cited several factors in the passenger decline and stabilization, including “impacts of geopolitical concerns” such as the Iranian conflict, rising oil prices and federal budget effects related to the pay of airport security screeners. Most of those have developed only since February 2026, though, while the number of Charlotte airport passengers peaked in 2024. As Charlotte's numbers dropped, demand for air travel rose nationally by 2.4% in 2025.

A bigger factor would seem to be the decision by American Airlines, Charlotte’s biggest carrier, to reduce flights here.

“It really is a repositioning to some extent,” Hill said. “American in particular realized that in 2024 and 2025, when they drove down our passenger experience scores to where our folks couldn’t really even traverse the terminal building the way they needed to — and then our bag system limitations, the limitations of the building — they have repositioned maybe somewhere around 7-8% of those flights as they also are trying to compete with United in Chicago.”

Hill cited industry figures from 2024 that showed that CLT was the seventh-largest airport in the country by passengers. More recent data, though, shows that CLT slipped to No. 11 in 2025, surpassed by Orlando, Miami, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

In the update to the City Council committee, Hill also touted the airport’s efforts to enhance the customer experience, develop the airport’s workforce, partner with community groups, assist children with developmental disabilities and support small and disadvantaged businesses.

He did not mention and was not asked by council members about the airport’s ongoing demolitions of historic structures, last month’s parking price increases or Charlotte’s higher-than-average airfares.

He also did not directly address the status of lease negotiations with airlines, with a new lease expected this summer that could help determine the future of construction at Charlotte’s airport for the next decade. 

He said net airline payments to the airport are expected to rise 11% next year, to $168M, and that the cost per enplaned passenger would rise 32% next year compared with this year’s budget, to $5.06 — still among the lowest of major airports.

The airport is finishing renovations on Concourses D and E, as well as continuing construction on a fourth runway.

As far as future construction, Hill said the airport is working with consultants on a master plan, which could address the growing difficulty getting around a larger airport by calling for “some sort of underground people-moving system to a remote concourse.” —Tony Mecia

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