Lafayette airport boardings trailed 2025 through July

Lafayette Regional Airport recorded 164,777 passenger boardings from January through July 2026, a 4.4 percent decline from the same months of 2025, according to a Vermilion Boom calculation from the airport’s traffic table, checked September 13.

The comparison uses the seven published monthly entries in each year. They total 172,434 in 2025 and 150,160 in 2024, placing the 2026 figure 9.7 percent above the earlier year. The recent decline therefore followed a larger year-over-year increase.

July’s entry was 26,025 boardings, compared with 27,948 in July 2025. April was the only month in the January–July comparison to exceed its 2025 counterpart, and then only slightly: 24,648 against 24,625, the airport table shows.

These figures measure boardings. The Federal Aviation Administration’s definition, updated December 7, 2022, calls passenger boardings at airports with scheduled service “enplanements.” That is an activity count, not a count of distinct people: a traveler who flies more than once can contribute more than one boarding.

The airport’s August 2026 field was still blank when checked. The available series consequently stops before the late-August Pecan Island announcement and cannot show travel after that announcement. Nor does the table identify travelers’ destinations, home parishes or reasons for flying.

For tracking subsequent change, January–July supplies a documented starting point: traffic below the previous year, but still above the same stretch of 2024.