Private Airplane Flights Into Missoula Up 25% in July

Over 1,000 more private planes landed at the Missoula International Airport this past July compared to July 2019, according to airport Director Cris Jensen. That's an increase of 25%.

“That’s everything from small-single engine, four-seat aircraft to very large corporate jets that would be comparable to an airliner,” Jensen said. “It’s kind of accelerating. In June we were up only 4%, in May we were down 26% and in April we were down 47%, so we’re seeing kind of a rebound from months where we were deepest in the pandemic. Now we’re actually ahead of where we’d be in a normal year.”

The airport doesn’t have any tracking mechanism to log where flights are originating, Jensen said.

In July 2020, there were 5,522 “general aviation operations” as private plane landings are called, while in July 2019 there were 4,426.

Forrest Gue, the director of operations at private aviation company Minuteman Aviation next to the airport, said there’s been a big uptick since June 1.

“Ever since the governor opened up the 14-day quarantine period, it was kind of like turning the light switch on,” he said.

They also don’t keep track of where planes originate, but Gue said they chat with pilots and passengers.

“People are coming from all over,” he said. "It’s just a lot of people coming here for a break, it seems, vacation. It’s more of that than business. We still get our business clients but also I think the increase is more from people coming to Montana to get away from the virus.”

A driver for the Paws Up luxury resort east of Missoula could be seen waiting for passengers on Tuesday inside the airport.

Kynan Spethman, the general manager at North Star Aviation near the airport, said private business travelers have dropped off the map but recreation visitors have spiked. He said the quarterly business travelers, like executives from Costco who come to check on local operations, have pretty much ceased. But people traveling to the luxury vacation ranches in the area are still coming in strong.

In his Director’s Report to the Missoula Airport Authority Board on Tuesday, Jensen said about 1,000 commercial passengers depart from the airport every day, which is about 50% of normal. However, it’s still many more than the 400 passengers per day the airport saw in June 2020.

He noted that a study from Airlines for America showed that the number of air travelers being screened by the Transportation Security Administration has plummeted nationally. In places like New York and Hawaii (which has a mandatory quarantine period) the number of passengers is down more than 85%.

Many of those places have seen a decline in scheduled passenger flights. However, Montana has seen the least impact of all 50 states, with just 25% fewer flights offered in July 2020 compared to July 2019.

"Of interest to us is the state least affected by capacity cuts in the nation is Montana,” Jensen wrote to the board. "I believe that our big open spaces with relatively small population gives the perception that we are a safer destination than many of the more densely populated locations in the county and also explains why airlines such as Alaska and American are adding service to Missoula.”

In July, Alaska announced that starting next March, it’ll launch nonstop daily service from Missoula to and from San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose. That was the largest expansion of air service in the history of the Missoula International Airport.

Construction is going well and on schedule for a new $64 million terminal at the airport, Jensen said.

“If there’s any silver lining at all for all of us, not a lot of people or cars or airplanes are here to get in the way,” he said. “It’s going well and is absolutely on schedule. It’s going smooth for us at this point.”

Construction is scheduled to finish in late 2021 and the actual transition to operating the new terminal will happen in early 2022, as of right now.

The increase in private flights adds a little bit to the airport's revenue, Jensen said, because they get a fuel sales flowage fee along with a landing fee for larger aircraft.

———

Visit Missoulian, Mont. at http://www.missoulian.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.