Passenger activity, air traffic climb to new heights at Glacier Park International

Double-digit growth during the spring and fall shoulder seasons helped Glacier Park International Airport set another record for passenger activity in 2004.

Total commercial boardings were up 6.4 percent for the year to 178,334, according to Airport Manager Mike Daigle.

This marks GPI's 16th record in the last 17 years. The only decline during that stretch came in 2001, when air travel fell off sharply following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The 2004 activity was relatively flat in June, July and August during the peak tourist season, Daigle said. However, there was double-digit growth in six of the remaining nine months compared to the same period of 2003, including increases of 15 percent in October and 16.2 percent in November.

"What these numbers tell me is that we aren't necessarily seeing an increase in tourism," Daigle said. "I think it reflects our population growth plus business travel and people who have second homes here."

Those factors also may be contributing to the airport's booming business in corporate and general aviation traffic.

There were 62,993 total air operations (takeoffs and landings) during 2004, Daigle said. That was up 21 percent from the previous year - which was up more than 30 percent from 2002 - with essentially the entire increase coming from noncommercial activity.

"The number of commercial flights stays pretty steady from year to year, but we've had a huge increase in the amount of general and corporate aviation using our facility," he said. "In November, our traffic count was up 34 percent from the previous year. In February, it was up 54 percent, although that's swayed somewhat by weather."

Daigle said the airport board regularly evaluates the infrastructure and other improvements needed to meet this ongoing demand. It also will wade through the traffic data to determine if there are any opportunities to add commercial flights.

Without more planes, it's going to be difficult to improve GPI's summer boarding numbers. The airport's average seat occupancy was 82 percent in August, Daigle said. The only airport in Montana with a higher average was Bozeman, at 83 percent.

"You're never going to hit 100 percent, for operational reasons," he said. "Right now, we have no room for growth during the summer."

The constant upward trend in boarding numbers helps make the case for more flights, Daigle said, but that's only part of a highly complex equation. The airlines have limited assets that can be sent to a number of different markets, each of which has different ticket prices, airport fees, fuel requirements, flight times and flight characteristics.

"If they think they can make more money adding another flight somewhere else, that's what they're going to do," he said.

Besides these operating issues, work is set to begin this spring on a 1,000-foot runway expansion. Preparations also are under way for the Mountain Madness Air Show this summer.

"I'm not dying from boredom," Daigle said. "It's an exciting time out here."

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com