Boise Airport sets monthly passenger record as summer travel rebounds amid pandemic
The Boise Airport continues to grow in popularity, with the Treasure Valley travel hub this summer eclipsing 400,000 passengers in a single month for the first time — despite the coronavirus pandemic’s ongoing effect on air travel nationwide.
In July, the airport hit an all-time one-month high of 419,211 passengers, which was immediately followed by its busiest August on record, with more than 378,000 passengers. The back-to-back summer months are historically the region’s top two for air travel, with June ranking third. That month just missed its high-water mark in 2021, according to Boise Airport passenger data, falling about 1,300 travelers short of a record.
“The rebound has been very strong and the airport is certainly feeling positive about that,” Sean Briggs, Boise Airport’s business development manager, said in an interview with the Idaho Statesman. “We believe there are a number of reasons why passenger traffic has performed so well … and some of that is really based on pent-up travel demand from passengers. Vaccines are widely available, and the airport and airlines are taking safety measures like mask mandates seriously, which make people more comfortable.”
This year’s traveler counts are strong, but overall still trail 2019, which holds the 12-month record at the Boise Airport — more than 4.1 million passengers. COVID-19 and associated global restrictions decimated the commercial air travel industry in 2020. What had routinely become more than 300,000 monthly passengers out of Idaho’s capital city plummeted to an all-time low of just over 18,000 in April 2020, when the pandemic took hold.
September’s passenger numbers aren’t available yet. But of the 8,000 five-day passholders who attended last week’s annual Treefort Music Fest — which was rescheduled from its usual March time slot — organizers said more than a quarter came from out of town, not including musicians and volunteers, so the month could see a bump in air travel.
With three months remaining in 2021, including the typically busy holiday season, the airport is on pace to surpass 3.5 million passengers for the year, which would rival 2017 for Boise’s third-busiest year of air travel.
“Boise is kind of a shining star,” Mike Boyd, president of Colorado-based aviation consulting firm Boyd Group International, told the Statesman. “Boise is blessed with a vibrant economy, and is also not near anything — you can’t drive anywhere else and get better (airport) service. So it’s a unique kind of marketplace.”
New routes for Boise, added capacity
Several factors are contributing to local passenger increases, officials said. First and foremost is the pronounced explosion in population over the past decade — Idaho is by percentage the No. 2 fastest-growing state during that period, according to 2020 U.S. Census data — as well as the recent expansion of flight options by the airport’s eight commercial airlines.
“Airlines added 10 nonstop destinations in the past year,” Briggs said. “Passengers certainly have more options than ever before traveling through the Boise Airport.”
Nonstop routes are now available from Boise to 28 cities, though five of those destinations are offered only seasonally. These include the recent addition of JetBlue Airways’ direct flight to and from New York City, which concluded service for the year on Sept. 6, and Allegiant Air’s new flight between Boise and Nashville, which also ended for the season on Sept. 6. Allegiant is scheduled to reintroduce winter flights to and from Palm Springs on Oct. 6, and Alaska Airlines will offer a similar seasonal service on Dec. 18.
In addition, Delta Air Lines launched a direct route to its hub in Atlanta last November, and Alaska added service to Everett, Washington, earlier this month, with plans to introduce seasonal flights to Phoenix in November, lasting through April.
“Maintaining a strong, vibrant and busy airport is key to our economy,” Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said in a statement to the Statesman. “Our airport team works hard to secure new routes to connect our city and region to a variety of locations for business and leisure travel — and we will continue to prioritize the health and safety of our community as people return to the skies.”
Airport expansions delayed but en route
The Boise Airport is among the 10 fastest-growing in the country, and also part of the Rocky Mountain Region that through 2025 the Boyd Group projects will see a 30% increase in passengers — the largest in the nation. Airports in the South can anticipate gains of 22% over that stretch, while those in the Northeast are forecast to see a 2% decline, Boyd said.
This year’s July passenger count in Boise represented an almost 10% uptick from 2019. (Most 2020 comparisons offer limited insight, because of the dramatic declines related to COVID-19). Until the pandemic sapped yearly industry gains, the Boise Airport recorded eight consecutive years of passenger growth, from 2012 to 2019 — including a nearly 58% increase over that period.
In June, airport officials said they anticipated the Federal Aviation Administration would likely reclassify the regional airfield from a small to medium hub, which comes with additional oversight. On Tuesday, the Boise Airport announced the opening of a dedicated nursing room for recent mothers and a service animal relief area, per federal requirements tied to the change in category.
“The Boise Airport understands that our passengers have many different needs when traveling,” Airport Director Rebecca Hupp said in a news release announcing the upgrades. “These additions provide more options for our passengers and assist with our efforts to improve the passenger experience for everyone at the Boise Airport.”
Such levels of growth come with other challenges in meeting traveler’s expectations, too.
To address that, the airport added a security lane in summer 2019 to keep up with passenger demand, bringing the total at the TSA checkpoint to six. Plans are in place to reach seven security lanes next year, Briggs said.
Amid the pandemic, and with it the decreased demand that immediately followed, however, the airport chose to delay hundreds of millions of dollars of expansion, with the majority of those plans originally slated to be finished by the end of 2023. The projects include a new concourse — as well as future renovation of an existing terminal — plus a seven-level rental car structure and a five-level public parking garage, where only ground-level exists today.
Construction is now set to start next year on the public parking garage, in addition to another for airport employees, Briggs said. Construction on the new concourse, to add six to eight gates initially, with potential to expand to 12 total, is expected to begin in 2024, he said.
The Boise Airport received nearly $43 million in emergency federal aid through the trio of pandemic economic relief and stimulus packages passed under the Trump and Biden administrations. So far, Briggs said the airport has spent about $20.5 million of that, with plans to use the remainder over the next four years toward debt and general airport operations.
This story was originally published October 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
