The Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport celebrated its busiest day ever in the airport’s history Sunday with a 29 percent increase in passenger travel.
The Sunday after the Kentucky Derby, known as “Departure Sunday,” is consistently the airport’s busiest day of the year.
On a typical May day, the airport handles around 7,700 passengers according to the Louisville Regional Airport Authority. However, May 5, 2019, drew 14,500 departures to the airport and a combined arrivals/departures total of 28,000 people.
“Derby is always a bustling time for our airport and this year was no exception — it blew us away,” Dan Mann, executive director of the Louisville Regional Airport Authority, said. “We had 71 mainline aircraft scheduled for Sunday, May 5 — an increase of 136 percent compared to our average of about 30 on a typical day in the month. This is a wonderful increase for our airport, and provides an essential service for the Kentucky Derby experience.”
When tracking that week’s activities from Wednesday onward, 48,600 people were scheduled to pass through the airport on 441 separate flights. Overall, that made for a 22 percent increase in passenger capacity.