Palm Springs airport nears record pace as seasonal flights return
2.21 million passengers through August, a baggage system overhaul on the books, and up to $10.5 million more in federal support: PSP is building for bigger winters.
PALM SPRINGS: Palm Springs International Airport is running near a record pace, handling 124,354 passengers in July and 119,071 in August, for a year-to-date total of 2.21 million through August 2026.
The figures, reported this month, put the airport about 3 percent below 2025's record pace, and mark the second-highest January-through-August total of the last six years. The airport heads into the winter season as airlines restore seasonal nonstop routes that connect the desert to the rest of the country.
Behind the passenger numbers, the airport is planning a major capital upgrade. An outbound baggage system is under construction and expected to open in 2028, with completion of the baggage handling overhaul scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2028.
The airport is the front door of the valley's visitor economy.
Baggage systems are the kind of infrastructure nobody notices until it fails. PSP's open-air terminal design, charming in the abstract, funnels thousands of winter passengers through facilities built for a smaller era. The overhaul is the airport's acknowledgment that near-record years are the new normal, not the exception.
Federal money in the pipeline
The city has accepted up to $10.5 million in additional federal support for the inline baggage screening project, funding that helps underwrite the capital program alongside the baggage system overhaul.
For the valley's visitor economy, the airport numbers are watched closely. Hotels, restaurants and shops plan their winters around the flight schedule, and a near-record year at PSP is a promising sign for the businesses that depend on visitors landing here.
The terminal's mid-century bones remain, but the operation inside keeps modernizing: seasonal routes return each winter, the baggage project advances toward 2028, and federal dollars keep flowing into the capital plan.
The Post will track the winter schedule as airlines finalize their seasonal routes, and the capital program as the baggage overhaul moves toward its 2028 completion date. Check back as the winter season takes shape.
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