How much busier are Idaho airports post-COVID? The traffic numbers are record-breaking
Editor’s note: This story and visualization are part of our new “Data In Your Life” series, in which we mine public databases to tell quick stories about the world around us.
Sunday, July 7 saw a record 3 million travelers go through American airports. After a few years of depressed travel numbers following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, more Americans than ever are taking to the skies. But not all states have returned to pre-pandemic levels of air travel yet.
In Idaho, airport traffic decreased by 51% in 2020 compared to the previous year. However, with the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine beginning in December 2020, travel restrictions began to be relaxed, and more people started traveling again.
The U.S. Department of Transportation publishes data on the number of passengers flying to or from a given airport. This chart shows the number of passengers who flew to or from an Idaho airport from 2019 to 2023.
Three years later, airport traffic had bounced back and even surpassed pre-pandemic levels in Idaho — the same as in 24 other states. Idaho’s airport traffic in 2023 was up 15% compared to 2019.
The rise in annual travelers at the Boise Airport, the state’s primary air hub, largely mirrors that growth. The airport broke its yearly passenger record for the second straight year in 2023, with nearly 4.8 million passengers, and is on track to top that number again in 2024.
Boise has added numerous flights to its lineup this past year, including low-cost flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and upcoming flights to Orlando, Florida, and Bozeman, Montana.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that he expects the record-breaking travel to continue in the coming months.
To accommodate the growing number of people coming through Boise Airport, airport officials announced plans for a new concourse in June. Airport Director Rebecca Hupp shared plans for the new concourse with the Boise City Council in 2019; the concourse would be built on the airport’s west side and constructed to accommodate airlines’ increasingly larger planes.
