North Dakota Airports See Month-on-Month Increase in Passengers

The number of passengers at North Dakota’s commercial airports are slowly, steadily climbing, but are still well below last year’s numbers at this time.

North Dakota’s eight commercial airports have seen two months of increased numbers of passengers, which follows the trend of what is happening nationally. The historically low passenger numbers are directly attributed to travelers’ concerns over COVID-19.

In June, 24,313 passengers boarded flights at N.D. airports. That amounts to 24% of the passengers those airports had for the same month in 2019. That number is an improvement over the months of April and May, which saw the passenger volume decrease by 95% and 86% respectively, compared to last year.

At Grand Forks International Airport, passenger numbers for June stood at 1,232, down from 9,123 last year. 26,664 passengers have flown out of Grand Forks this year to date, down 53.95% for the same time period last year, when 57,904 people boarded planes.

“Concerns regarding further spread of COVID-19 currently limits the upside of the airline industry and its ability to attract additional demand,” said Kyle Wanner, executive director of the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission, in a June 15 press release.

For the year through June, there have been 309,217 passenger boardings in North Dakota. This is a drop of 270,864 passengers, a 47% decrease, from this same time period in 2019.

The improving passenger numbers show signs of life at GFK. Allegiant Air is operating one, or sometimes two flights per week to Las Vegas. According to Ryan Riesinger, executive director of the airport, Delta, on July 10, added two additional daily flights to accommodate increasing passenger numbers. In June, some Delta flights to Minneapolis saw passenger numbers numbers that hit the airline's system-wide cap of 60% occupancy--about 42 people.

“Airports in North Dakota and throughout the country are working hard on a daily basis to implement recommended practices to help ensure a safe environment for those who either want or need to utilize air transportation,” Wanner said.

GFK in March introduced a stepped up cleaning regimen and posted flyers in its restrooms about proper hand washing.

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