Aug. 10—Although air traffic is up at Rapid City Regional Airport during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Executive Director Patrick Dame said Tuesday morning the jet fuel shortage is not having an impact in Rapid City as it is in other parts of the west.

In July, Gov. Kristi Noem issued an executive order to address concerns about looming fuel shortages in western South Dakota.

"There has been fuel shortage discussions. The governor has reached out to us a few times on this," Dame said Tuesday. "They did declare an emergency under the fuel piece of it, but I don't believe at this point we've seen any real impact."

The executive order, issued July 17, extended the hours of service for the commercial delivery of petroleum products in South Dakota by declaring a state of emergency and exempting delivery of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and ethyl alcohol from federal motor carrier regulations on drivers' hours of service. It expires at midnight Aug. 16, the day after the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally officially ends.

"We have not really heard as much as some of the western airports around the country," Dame said.

A spike in demand for jet fuel both by commercial airlines and from firefighting aircraft in Montana and the Pacific Northwest has led to departure problems and daylong flight delays recently at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, the Associated Press reported.

In California, recent flights in and out of Fresno Yosemite International Airport were disrupted by jet fuel shortages blamed on the lack of tanker deliveries.

Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport is a comparable airport to Rapid City Regional, Dame said. The air traffic that flows through them are experiencing similar issues, except the fuel shortage, Dame said.

"I think at this point, it's probably a foregone conclusion that we are likely going to have a record month (for air traffic in Rapid City)," Dame said. "It's probably not as high as it would have been. I think some people did cancel trips due to cost of car rentals and cost of motels, and we're seeing that in other similar-situated cities, Bozeman being a prime example."

Dame said it has been a great summer so far for Rapid City and that the airport is operating well.

"The good news is we didn't overtax the terminal to the point, but it has taken a pretty good beating," he said.

Maintenance and janitorial crews are busy keeping the terminal as clean as possible. After the busy travel season comes to an end, Dame said the airport has contracted with a cleaning company to do an intensive makeover of the public areas and concourse.

"We got a lot of staff that are working really hard trying to keep the place clean. We're working on trying to keep everyone happy in terms of the airlines, too," Dame said.

The airport had a submarine sandwich feed for all airport personnel and is providing extra water and other beverages for the airline crews as they work to turn around arriving and departing flights, Dame said.

"They're working really hard all the time in the hot weather and we want to make sure we are trying to provide something for them," Dame said.

Contact Nathan Thompson at [email protected].

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