Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Broward County have just released the official figures for 2025, and they are down: only 32.2 million passengers used FLL, compared to 35.2 million in 2024, representing an -8.5% drop in traffic.
With already weak growth of +0.3% in 2024, the airport ranked 19th among US airports according to the county’s official estimates: 20th for domestic travel and 13th for international traffic. This ranking could therefore be revised downward for 2025.
Excluding the pandemic year of 2020 (with a -55% decline), this is the first drop in traffic for Fort Lauderdale Airport since 2013. This reduction in passenger numbers is both domestic and international: domestic travelers numbered only 26.05 million, down -6.6%; and international visitors numbered 6.16 million, compared to 7.32 million in 2024, a reduction of -15.9% in 2025. This is undoubtedly a direct result of the federal government’s strict immigration policy and the decline in Canadian visitors due to political and trade tensions between the two North American countries.
The financial difficulties of various airlines are also to blame.
Some airlines have managed to come out on top, notably Allegiant, which increased its passenger numbers by +20.9%. Another winner is Frontier, with an increase of +15.3%. United Airlines (+2.4%) and American Airlines (+1.7%) are holding their own, but the others have all taken a nosedive, particularly Southwest (-24.1%), Spirit (-18.3%), and Air Canada (-7.2%).
For Spirit Airlines, the leader at FLL with a 28% market share, this decline comes as no surprise, as it filed for bankruptcy twice in 2025 and reduced the number of its flights and flight crew. It is now a smaller airline, with fewer planes and fewer destinations. The number of passengers fell from 11.1 million in 2024 to 9 million in 2025.
For SouthWest, this was also predictable as the airline decided to move its international flights to Orlando Airport.
And let’s not forget that Silver Airways filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2024 and ceased operations in June 2025.
It is interesting to note that total air traffic (number of round-trip flights) remained relatively stable (+0.4%) for one simple reason: the increase in military departures and landings. Conventional air flights (232,900 flights) declined by 7.1%, offset by a 37.7% increase in military traffic (69,600 flights).
The amount of cargo transported by cargo planes also decreased in 2025 by -1.4% and mail flights (via US Mail) by -21.1%.
Outlook for 2026
In December, Haiti’s Sunrise Airways opened a new route three times a week between Fort Lauderdale and Cap-Haïtien. In addition, Canadian carrier Porter Airlines, hoping to increase the number of Canadian travelers to South Florida, also opened a new route between Hamilton International Airport in Ontario and FLL in December 2025. These new routes are expected to boost international traffic in 2026.
Official figures for 2025 for Miami International Airport (MIA) have not yet been released. Figures for Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) are expected to be strong, with 8.6 million passengers for the 12-month period from December 2024 to November 2025, up +4.1%.
