June airport numbers demonstrate robust recovery

In the wake of a turbulent year for air travel, traffic at Glacier Park International Airport is headed in just one direction — up.

"The trend we're seeing is record-breaking growth by a wide margin," Airport Director Rob Ratkowski said.

The airport's passenger counts since the onset of the pandemic have followed a trajectory unlike most others.

At first, GPIA seemed to fare better than many airports beleaguered by pandemic-related cancellations.

But by April 2020, security checkpoint data at GPIA hit a record low. During the absolute slowest day, only 21 passengers came through the airport.

Those dismal numbers ticked upward last summer, but the shoulder seasons remained relatively slow through fall 2020, winter 2020 and into spring 2021.

Then, passenger counts took off, and they've been skyrocketing ever since.

A total of 49,552 passengers traveled through the airport in June, according to data provided by Ratkwoski.

That's up from just 9,689 in June 2020.

In June 2019, meanwhile, 38,243 passengers were recorded.

A growth trend is nothing new for Ratkowski and his team. They've seen passenger numbers climb generally upward year after year—but never at a pace as sudden as the increase this summer.

Enplanements, which refer to passengers boarding a plane, the standard metric of the airline industry, eclipsed 10,000 for the first time in August 1989. That same month in 1997, they jumped past 20,000. It wasn't until July 2013 that they exceeded 30,000.

After that, it took just four years to add another 10,000, in July 2017.

And a mere two years later, GPIA simultaneously passed the 50,000 and 60,000 marks. The highest monthly passenger count on record was 60,470 enplanements in July 2019.

For July and August 2021, the airport predicts it will handle 70,000 passengers each month.

"Forty thousand [monthly passengers] used to be a big deal," Ratkwoski recalled.

These days, not so much.

Interest in flying to Kalispell has been generally rising, Ratkowski reported, but he said some specific recent phenomena have exacerbated that trend.

Out-of-state travelers aren't the only ones accounting for the growing numbers. Ratkwoski said "inbound migration" — new residents who have moved to the valley — is part of that picture.

The increased number of cars in the airport parking lot illustrate that change, Ratkowski pointed out.

"The parking lot is much more full," he said. "Those are locals."

Tourism is still a huge factor for the airport, though. Unlike other tourist-heavy airports, however, the pandemic has caused growth at GPIA, not shortages.

Ratkwoski said the "domestic leisure market" — an airport category that includes GPIA — is "one sector doing really well right now."

But it's putting a strain on the small airport's capacity.

Ratkowski said the airport's services have been overwhelmed and its spaces overcrowded throughout the summer. The need for the airport's $100 million expansion project, which got underway recently, is apparent in every one of the airport's five current gates.

Fortunately, he said security checkpoint wait times have rarely exceeded 30 minutes — an official cutoff that necessitates a conversation between airport leadership and the Transportation Security Administration.

Still, Ratkwoski advised passengers to arrive two hours before their flights, just to be safe.

Ratkowski said jet fuel shortages aren't creating serious issues at GPIA. Flight cancellations, which have recently wreaked havoc throughout airports in the west, haven't become common in Kalispell, he said Monday.

"There definitely are fuel shortages, but we have been mitigating the impact and it has been transparent to travelers, with the exception that they may need to make a fuel stop en route," Ratkowski said.

However, he recognized the situation is subject to change.

In particular, he expects the eventual reopening of the Canadian border to play a big role in airport conditions during the next few months.

Ratkowski said GPIA could soon see a "bump" in Canadian passengers, and those numbers could stay high well past the end of the Flathead's traditional summer tourist season.

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at 406-758-4459 or bserbin@dailyinterlake.com.