LINES STRETCH WAY BACK FROM THE TSA CHECKPOINTS DURING THE THANKSGIVING WEEKEND RUSH IN 2024 AT PITTSBURGH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. | PHOTO BY VIRGINIA LINN

Annual passenger traffic at Pittsburgh International Airport surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the first time in 2024, according to new figures.

Not only that, the nearly 10 million passengers that traveled through PIT last year was its highest total in nearly two decades.

A boost in holiday travel kicked up December’s traffic by 5.1% from 2023, bringing the 2024 total to 9.95 million. That surpassed the 9.8 million travelers by 166,000 passengers in pre-pandemic 2019, according to Blue Sky News, the airport’s news service.

The totals also strengthened PIT’s position as an origin-destination airport, as 9.7 million of the 9.95 travelers in 2024 started and ended their trips in Pittsburgh. Construction is 80% complete on a new $1.57 billion terminal that is designed to better accommodate that origin-destination traffic.

PIT’s international traffic also is growing. In 2024 the number of passengers surpassed 195,000 — a 30% increase over 2023. This was spurred by the introduction of nonstop Icelandair flights to Iceland in the spring and continued growth by British Airways, which flies into London’s Heathrow Airport.

Diversifying the number of airlines serving PIT has been a strategy by the Allegheny County Airport Authority over the last several years.

Earlier this month, JetBlue announced it is bringing back nonstop service between PIT to New York City, beginning April 30. The airline last provided this route almost 12 years ago. It will be flying into Kennedy Airport. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines also offer daily nonstop flights to JFK.

One area that also has seen a growth spurt in the last two years is the number of guns intercepted at TSA checkpoints at PIT — many of them loaded. TSA agents caught 42 in 2024 and 44 in 2023. Except for 2020 — at the height of the pandemic — this has shown almost a steady increase since 2017, when 32 guns were intercepted at TSA checkpoints.

“When stopped by our officers, the majority of people claim that they forgot that they had their gun with them,” said Gerardo Spero, TSA’s Federal Security Director for Pennsylvania and Delaware, in a recent statement. “It is careless and irresponsible to not know where your gun is. Responsible gun owners know where their gun is at all times. And they know not to bring it to an airport checkpoint.”

And just today — on Jan. 21, 2025 — the TSA intercepted two more loaded guns at the PIT TSA checkpoint: a Pittsburgh man was stopped with a .32 caliber handgun loaded with six bullets. In the other,  a Baden man was found with a loaded .40-caliber gun. Police confiscated both weapons.