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Airport outlines lessons from 2024 busy days; plans expanded event response for 2025
Summary
Communications staff told the commission Austin experienced its second‑busiest year in 2024 with roughly 21 million passengers and record single‑day screening of about 44,000 people after Formula 1; the department described multi‑agency coordination, a trained event response team, hotel toolkits, and a planned text‑alert program for customers.
The Aviation Department’s communications and marketing team told the Airport Advisory Commission Feb. 12 that 2024 was the airport’s second‑busiest year on record and described operational steps the department is taking to prepare for crowded days in 2025.
Deputy Chief Communications and Marketing Officer Sam Haines said airline data show roughly 21 million passengers used the airport in 2024 and that average departing day volumes were about 27,000–30,000 travelers. Special events and holidays produced much larger spikes—35,000 to over 40,000 departing travelers on busy days—with the busiest single day on record occurring the Monday after Formula 1 (about 44,000 people screened by TSA). Six of the airport’s 10 busiest days occurred in 2024, Haines said.
Haines outlined the airport’s preparedness model: coordination with federal partners (TSA, FAA, CBP), airlines, and concession operators; activation of a Department Operations Center for real‑time situational oversight; and the AUS event response teams—trained staff from across airport divisions who serve customer‑facing roles during surges. The department activated the event response team for about 20 holiday or special events in 2024 and also used it reactively for incidents such as a CrowdStrike global outage that temporarily paused one airline’s operations.
For customer-facing outreach, staff created a hotel and lodging toolkit to help local hotels give accurate arrival guidance (staff emphasized passengers should allow 2–2.5 hours for check‑in and screening on busy days). The department also coordinated with university and athletic partners (UT and external athletics departments) to push travel notices and plans to pilot a customer text message alert program in 2025.
Commissioners asked about TSA staffing and forecast tools; Haines said TSA provides projected hourly checkpoint volumes to airport operations for planning, and the airport uses that information to coordinate which checkpoints to open. Haines said 2025 currently looks similar to 2024 in terms of the calendar of busy events, though 2025 lacks an eclipse event and staff are still monitoring potential schedule conflicts around Formula 1.
