BOZEMAN YELLOWSTONE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
BOZEMAN – The COVID-19 global pandemic had a dramatic negative effect on passenger traffic at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport during 2020 with the airport handling 889,775 passengers. This was a decrease of 684,085 passengers—-43.5 percent—compared to 2019 record passenger traffic. On a national basis, the Transportation Security Administration reported a 60.7 percent decline in passenger throughput across 440 U.S. airports.
“While the impact on passenger traffic was significant at BZN, we are pleased to see traffic recovery has outpaced the nation as a whole and what this improvement means for the local economy,” said Brian Sprenger, Airport Director. “We continue to work with our airline partners in minimizing potential transmission and are looking forward to a successful vaccination program to return traffic to more traditional levels.”
Despite COVID-19, during 2020, the airport added an eighth airline, Sun Country with new seasonal service to Minneapolis/St. Paul. Additionally, Alaska added daily service to Los Angeles and Allegiant added non- stop service to Nashville. Also, JetBlue added new seasonal service to Boston, New York and Fort Lauderdale and relocated their Long Beach service to Los Angeles. Finally, American added seasonal service to Charlotte, NC. In 2021, several planned but delayed 2020 service improvements will be added with Alaska Airlines up-gauging one daily non-stop to Seattle/Tacoma with mainline A320 aircraft in February and American launching summer Saturday service to both Philadelphia and New York’s LaGuardia airport.
The Air Traffic Control Tower handled an all-time record 104,091 aircraft operations during the year, up 6.4 percent. Business aviation operations increased 1.1 percent to 12,000. General aviation accounts for 72 percent of aircraft operations, scheduled passenger and cargo airline service accounts for approximately 16 percent with business aviation accounting for the remaining 12 percent. There were 98 general aviation international arrivals handled at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office at BZN during the year compared to 126 during 2019.
BZN completed several construction projects in 2020. In November, the Concourse B expansion opened with four more gates, an additional restaurant/bar, mother’s room, and pet relief area. BZN also constructed over 3,000 linear feet of taxiway and infrastructure to serve additional new private hangars. Eighteen new private hangars were constructed during 2020. BZN is the seventh busiest airport in the 7-state Northwest Region of the country (region including Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington) and the 100th busiest airport in the nation in terms of passengers.
Passenger totals in and out by airline brand in 2020 were:
- United Airlines – 267,786
- Delta Air Lines – 263,525
- American Airlines – 139,510
- Alaska Airlines – 116,967
- Allegiant Air – 50,333
- Frontier Airlines – 33,023
- JetBlue – 11,269
- Sun Country – 6,088
- Chartered Airline Flights – 1,274
