Asheville Regional Airport is celebrating a big milestone: 2025 was the airport’s second-busiest year ever.
The news marks the latest step in Western North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene.
A total of 2,240,877 passengers traveled through Asheville Regional Airport last year, the airport authority announced Wednesday.
That’s roughly 5,500 fewer travelers than passed through the airport in 2023, its busiest year ever.
For years, Asheville Regional Airport experienced double-digit growth amid Western North Carolina’s booming popularity as a tourism destination.
Then, Hurricane Helene hit in September 2024. The storm devastated local communities. Tourism to the region plummeted – and while high passenger numbers from earlier in the year gave the airport a strong 2024 overall, the future remained uncertain.
Since then, it’s been a slow but steady rebuilding effort.
Lew Bleiweis, the airport’s president and CEO, calls the 2025 ridership numbers a “tremendous accomplishment.”
“The region has moved forward with resilience and so has its airport,” Bleiweis said in a statement. “This performance reflects the strength of our community’s support, the confidence of our airline partners, and the region’s continued appeal as both a destination and a place to live and work.”
AVL opened a new terminal last summer and continues to expand. It demolished its old terminal late last year, and a new South Concourse is expected to open by the end of 2027.
