After a 50 percent reduction in airport traffic in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport is on pace to set the record for most passengers in a calendar year, breaking the 2019 record of 1.57 million total passengers. Approximately 1.5 million passengers flew through the airport through September, marking more passengers in the past 12 months than any other 12-month period.
“I’m pretty sure we’ve already surpassed that total,” Airport Director Brian Sprenger told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle on Oct. 14. “We probably have just, within the last couple of days, surpassed year-to-date what we did in all of 2019.”
In 2021, all nine airlines that fly in and out of the Bozeman airport have added additional seasonal flights to several larger cities such as San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
Airport growth will likely stabilize next year, according to Sprenger, but counts will remain high.
The airport opened a 70,000 square foot concourse last year, complete with a new restaurant, bar and vendor spaces as well as five new gates. At the end of the month, the airport will begin constructing a new general aviation project on the north side of the airport and has plans to create a new baggage system in early 2022.
