Gainesville Regional Airport breaks passenger record in 2024 

Gainesville Regional Airport. Courtesy of Gainesville Regional Airport
Gainesville Regional Airport.
Courtesy of Gainesville Regional Airport

Gainesville Regional Airport serviced 578,175 passengers in 2024, breaking the previous record from 2019 by 19,929 passengers.  

The airport confirmed the new record on Tuesday after receiving December’s traffic numbers from Delta and American Airlines. Monthly passenger data typically comes over a week into the next month.  

According to a press release, the Gainesville airport’s passenger numbers continue to outpace area population growth and forecasts by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). 

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The passenger numbers include both commercial traffic and charter flights through the general aviation terminal. May was the airport’s highest traffic month with 52,470 passengers. 

Allan Penksa, airport CEO, said breaking through the pre-COVID-19 pandemic numbers is good for the community, its travelers and the airport’s more than 440 airport and tenant employees.   

“GNV’s success is a testament to the positive experiences of our passengers,” Penksa said in a release. “We thank our passengers for choosing to Fly Easy at GNV. Your continued support means so much to our team, and we thank you for your loyalty.” 

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gainesville Regional Airport has seen increasing numbers each year. In 2022, the airport broke past half a million passengers again, and passenger traffic fell short of the record by only 11,000 in 2023.  

Penksa added that 2024 had other highlights, including starting construction on a four-story, 418-space parking garage, an intermodal transportation center and an outbound baggage handling system. 

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Tana Silva

This is good news. GNV is a great asset and convenient, well-run airport. Those few misguided interests at UF and wherever else keeping up a decades-old idea of building a new commercial airport from scratch across the prairie halfway to Ocala are out of touch with reality and so wrong. Let it go. Fly GNV.

Susan

I do wish that I had a direct flight to
Detroit and Denver.

Cedric Wilson

I am a Homegrown resident of Gainesville Florida and I am tremendously proud of what GNV has become over the past 40 years.
C.Wilson.