Travelers flock to Montana’s busiest airport for cheaper flights

BELGRADE — The Bozeman Yellowstone Global Airport below in Belgrade has calendar year following yr proven by itself as the busiest airport in Montana. But what sets it apart from airports all around the condition?

Airport Director Brian Sprenger claims it’s of class the valley’s booming inhabitants, but also additional carriers seeking to expand their footprint in Montana opening up immediate flights to extra elements of the nation.

“Just one of our focuses as an airport is to make it inexpensive for airplanes to fly to Bozeman,” Sprenger suggests.

“In the end, it is genuinely about need and if the need is there the airways will try to fill that desire. And in some cases that suggests individuals will journey to a position the place the price tag is a minimal a lot less.”

Rebounding from journey cancellations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Sprenger is expecting a different hectic summer season.

“What we’re anticipating likely into summer time is we’ll almost certainly see a leveling off of the report site visitors that we saw final 12 months. And that file traffic has continued on for 13 months and it will keep on on into Could as nicely,” Sprenger reported.

In 2021, the airport established an all-time record of 1.94 million passengers. The Billings Logan Airport served over 770,000 travellers, just over the Missoula Global Airport’s 760,000.

Into 2022, that selection has presently grown.

“Over the most current 12 consecutive months we’ve taken care of about 2.2 million individuals in the airport, which equates to 1.1 million inbound and 1.1 million outbound,” Sprenger claimed.

And the number of men and women is paying out off–for the airport, airlines, and travelers.

“In normal we seem at each passenger that flies by the airport will generate about $20 for the airport. So passengers go up, the income goes up, travellers go down the profits goes down.

Sprenger says with the revenue produced, they can catch the attention of a range of airlines with reduced provider prices.

That is shelling out off for Montanans, who are touring several hours to catch cheaper flights.

“It was like three periods much more leaving out of Missoula,” claimed Avery Elder, a Missoula female who traveled with her fiance from Missoula to Belgrade to catch a flight to Raleigh, North Carolina.

“I arrived to Bozeman Yellowstone Global Airport just for the reason that traveling from Missoula is a tiny a lot more expensive than it is in this article. Usually Allegiant and American Airways are just way greater listed here, that is my private impression, that is why we drove.”

Sprenger suggests in the end, the bulk of Montanans flying out of the Bozeman Yellowstone Worldwide Airport are from the Gallatin Valley, but Montanans aren’t frightened to generate to find a deal.