Kansas City International Airport is off to a strong start in 2023 — and not just because its new $1.5 billion terminal is open.

New data from the Kansas City Aviation Department shows total passenger counts were up almost 28% in January (755,498) compared to the previous year (591,144).

That comes on the heels of a traffic rebound in 2022 from the impact of COVID-19 that saw KCI’s annual passenger count hit 9.82 million passengers, an increase of nearly 28% compared to 2021 and 118% over 2020.

Enplanements — or passengers boarding flights leaving the airport (Code: MCI) — reached 378,286 in January, besting the January 2022 travel counts by 30.5%.

However, the airport still lags behind its prepandemic levels. January’s enplanements were 6.6% lower than the passenger counts in January 2020 — months before COVID-19 all but halted travel.

Keep reading in the Kansas City Business Journal.