Post-pandemic passenger traffic has been moving more slowly back to Philadelphia Airport hubs for Delta and American than other places, writes Ted Reed for Forbes.

Fitch Ratings reports average airport recovery traffic at 92 percent at the end of 2022, but noted: “it was not an across-the-board success story.”

 “A slower return in hubbing activity led to secondary hubs such as Detroit, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia ending the year at less than 80 percent of 2019 levels.”

Philadelphia International Airport saw full-year passenger traffic declines of 31 percent between 2019 and 2022.

American plans to rebuild Philadelphia, said Brian Znotins, American Airlines’ vice president of network and schedule planning.

“Philadelphia is still our primary European gateway, “ he said.  “Philadelphia has been a bit smaller than we would like it to be”, leaving the city with “less feed opportunities for those European opportunities that are launching.”

Znotins said PHL will benefit when American starts using a new aircraft, an extended-range narrowbody Airbus  A321 XLR in the first quarter of 2024.

 “We’ll see a lot of those XLRs going to PHL, and we will add more widebodies there as well,” he said.

Read more about efforts to build up more passenger traffic at Philadelphia International in Forbes.