Raleigh-Durham International Airport says its “traditionally” busy July traffic was down 77.1 percent from a year ago as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hinder air travel.

During July, 306,715 passengers boarded flights at RDU, according to a press release from the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority. Last year, RDU said July 2019 was its busiest month on record with 679,000 passengers.

The latest July traffic numbers showed a month-over-month improvement of 46.7 percent from the June levels. RDU’s passenger traffic peaked over the Independence Day holiday weekend at about 26 percent of 2019 levels and then flattened out until it saw a “modest bump” in traffic in August.

The airport’s TSA screened more than 41,000 departing passengers the week ending Aug. 10, a 6 percent increase from the week prior, but only one-fourth of the traffic RDU saw in 2019.

“The aviation industry continues to feel the effects of the global pandemic and government restrictions that discourage non-essential travel,” Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority CEO Michael Landguth said in a statement.

Landguth noted that with the decline in business travel, some leisure travels are “taking advantage of low air fares and flying in greater numbers during the summer months.”

“We expect to see the number of travelers flatten or fall with the start of the school year,” he added.

Airlines are making near-term adjustments to flight schedules to offset reduced traffic. Southwest cut an additional 40 percent of its September flights at RDU and dropped its nonstop routes to Las Vegas and Houston.