CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is lowering its passenger forecast for 2025 due in part to a lackluster summer travel season.
Airport officials now forecast that Hopkins will welcome 10.1 million passengers in 2025 – down slightly from a year ago and a decrease of 2.9% from a previously predicted 10.4 million.
Through August, Cleveland Hopkins has welcomed 6.8 million passengers, down 1.6% from the same period in 2024.
The airport Monday reported that Hopkins welcomed 925,425 passengers in August, up 1.7% over the same period a year ago.
The uptick in August marks the first month since March where passenger numbers have increased compared to a year ago.
In 2024, Cleveland Hopkins welcomed 10.17 million passengers – the most since 2008, when Hopkins was a hub for Continental Airlines.
The passenger decline in 2025 mirrors a national trend of declining air traffic. Nationwide, U.S. airlines reported carrying 476 million passengers through the first sixth months of 2025, down 1.3% from the same period a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Industry observers generally attribute the decline to economic uncertainty among American travelers.
The Akron-Canton Airport, meanwhile, continues to buck the trend, with passenger numbers through August up 16% over the same period in 2024.
In July, Cleveland Hopkins launched a new marketing campaign – the Choice is CLEar – aimed at increasing passenger numbers by emphasizing the airport’s 126 daily departures and 40 nonstop destinations.
The airport is in the early stages of planning a new terminal to accommodate the growing number of passengers at Cleveland Hopkins. The new terminal is scheduled to open in 2032.