North Dakota\u2019s eight commercial service airports are\ncurrently experiencing a dramatic decline in passenger numbers despite posting\na 12% year to date growth through the first two months of the year. The airports recently posted the highest\npassenger numbers on record for the month of February and the overall trend was\npointing towards the potential of a record-breaking year in statewide passenger\nboardings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Passenger numbers then noticeably began to drop by the\nmiddle of March as a reduction of travel due to the COVID-19 virus began to\nhave an unprecedented and significant impact on airports throughout North\nDakota and the rest of the country. Instead of the expected passenger growth to\ncontinue; commercial service passenger boardings throughout North Dakota during\nthe month of March dropped 43% or 46,042 passengers from March of 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commercial airline passenger boardings throughout North\nDakota and the rest of the country are currently estimated to be at 5% of their\nnormal passenger boarding numbers. Airports receive most of their operational\nrevenue through passenger facility charges from purchased airline tickets, paid\nparking, and customer facility charges from car rentals and other on-site\nconcessionaires. The dramatic drop in passengers has in turn, created financial\nconcerns for both airports and airlines that depend on passengers for\nrevenue. The CARES stimulus package that\nwas recently signed into law is expected to provide short term relief for\nairports and the aviation industry and will help our community leaders continue\nto work through this crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Airlines have reacted to this lower demand by temporarily\ngrounding aircraft and reducing the amounts of flights at airports throughout\nthe country. North Dakota\u2019s airports have also been experiencing reductions in\nflights and in the month of April, the state has experienced an estimated 42%\nloss in overall passenger seats available. \nThese losses are expected to be temporary as the current demand for air\ntravel has been significantly lowered due to COVID-19 mitigation efforts. In the near future, the airlines are expected\nto maintain a minimal service level to communities throughout the country due\nto the aid that they will receive from the CARES stimulus package. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of North Dakota\u2019s commercial and general aviation\nairports continue to remain operational at this time and the freight of\nproducts via air transportation are ongoing without disruption. Our incredible airport staff throughout the\nstate continue to maintain and operate safe facilities for those people who\ncurrently need to utilize the safest air transportation system in the\nworld. Airport staff and TSA personnel\nat our commercial service airports are also being pro-active to sanitize\nsurfaces throughout their airport multiple times a day in efforts to maintain\nclean facilities and help to prevent further spread of COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAlthough these are currently difficult times, our airports\nare helping to ensure the safe transportation of critical materials and personnel\nwho need to travel. They are also\nworking hard to be in a position to help our economy rebound, once the COVID-19\nvirus concerns have subsided,\u201d stated Kyle Wanner, Executive Director of the\nNorth Dakota Aeronautics Commission. \n\u201cDue to the strength that we previously had in North Dakota\u2019s aviation\nindustry and the fact that North Dakota\u2019s airports have tackled so many other\nsignificant issues over the years; I am confident that together, we can work\nthrough these new issues and hopefully help our communities come out of this\nsituation even stronger than before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
North Dakota\u2019s eight commercial service airports are currently experiencing a dramatic decline in passenger numbers despite posting a 12% year to date growth through the first two months of the year. The airports recently posted the highest passenger numbers on record for the month of February and the overall trend was pointing towards the potential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-north-dakota"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15199,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15198\/revisions\/15199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}