She led Boise Airport through ‘seamless growth.’ Now the city must replace her
Boise and the words “growth” and “change” have appeared in more sentences over the past decade than could be counted.
Perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than at the Boise Airport, which has been ushered through major projects and “extraordinary growth” under the “transformational leadership” of Rebecca Hupp, as the city of Boise noted in a press release this week announcing the airport director’s departure.
Hupp, who is leaving after 14 years and taking a job in the private sector, told the Idaho Statesman in an interview Thursday that no one could have predicted what Boise and the Treasure Valley have navigated the past decade-plus.
“I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished together and grateful for the partnerships, employees and community support that have helped Boise Airport continue to grow and thrive,” said Hupp, who called it “the honor of a lifetime” to work with her airport team.
The city announced Wednesday that Hupp will be stepping away effective June 19. The release noted her leadership spearheading major infrastructure projects, expanding flight opportunities and revamping the Boise Airport experience while passenger traffic skyrocketed.
“Rebecca has had an incredible tenure at the Boise Airport through strong leadership and clear vision that has welcomed unprecedented and seamless growth,” Mayor Lauren McLean said in the release. “Her contributions to Boise, both professionally and personally, will have a lasting impact on our community.”
Boise Airport’s goal was to have right timing for projects
Hupp said Boise’s “consistent and compounding” growth meant that the airport needed to evolve and keep up during her time as director. Over the past decade, the airport has seen an 82 percent increase in passenger traffic, according to the city. Setting records has been the norm, with more than 5 million passengers in 2025.
With the need to expand, revamp and renew, the biggest challenge Hupp said she and her team faced was ensuring they had the right resources and infrastructure at the right time and place.
“No one wants to build a giant facility that you don’t need, but you also don’t want to be in a situation where you need new infrastructure, but you don’t have it,” she told the Statesman. “So being very intentional about the timing, and then recognizing that to build infrastructure of the magnitude takes time.”
Improvement projects, both completed and in progress, include a couple of overhauls of the airport’s food and shopping vendors, a new parking garage and rental car facility, expanded runways, and perhaps most notably a $700 million terminal expansion project.
That project to build Concourse A is expected to by completed by 2030, bringing more passenger gates. The project was originally expected to be finished by late 2023, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed plans, and the changing needs of a growing Treasure Valley population meant the plans had to expand.
Hupp said the project was “refined” to include doubling the number of new gates, adding more utilities and implementing a new baggage handling system. She has been heavily involved, of course, but won’t be there when it’s finally done.
“There’s always going to be a project,” Hupp said. “While I would love to have been here to see that project come to fruition, I also recognize that project will continue without me. We have a fantastic team in place, and I look forward to seeing them do not only this project, but also the next project.”
A career spent running airports
The city’s release described the team behind Hupp as “high-performing” individuals who prioritize improvement, innovation and excellence.
“We have tremendously skilled people on our airport team,” Hupp added. “We’ve been very intentional about hiring people who are highly qualified, and then giving them guidelines and expectations, but letting them do the work that they need to do.”
Hupp has spent her nearly 30-year career in this industry. Before she assumed the role in Boise, she led the Bangor International Airport in Maine for 12 years, and before that she worked at airports in South Dakota and in Kansas City.
And she isn’t done with aviation yet. Hupp will be stepping into a vice president role for Austin Industries, one of the country’s largest construction companies, which also often works on airport construction projects. The company announced Hupp’s addition on Wednesday.
In this position she will still be based in Boise while working on Austin Commercial’s airport projects around the country.
Austin President and CEO David Walls said in a release that Hupp’s extensive aviation expertise and leadership will help the company expand its “national aviation portfolio.”
Hupp said that departing is bittersweet. She said she looks forward to what the new position will bring, and at the same time is thrilled with what was accomplished at the Boise Airport, and grateful to the team of people who helped make it happen.
“I’m excited to see what the future holds for the Boise Airport,” Hupp said. “The future is bright, and I can’t wait to see the continued success.”
The city’s release said Boise Airport Deputy Director of Finance and Business Development Kathleen Watkins would serve as interim director while a search begins to recruit Hupp’s replacement.
