In October, the airport served 1,130 passengers, compared to 818 passengers from the same time last year and 418 passengers in 1999, reported the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission (NDAC).
“The numbers certainly are up from last year,” said Williston Airport Manager Rick Marburger.
With demand to fly locally increasing, Marburger said changes in current flight connections are expected to take place on Dec. 18, in an attempt to free up seats for Williston passengers.
At this time, the Williston Airport offers four roundtrip flights to Denver on Monday through Friday “ three flights connect in Dickinson and one flight connects in Gillette, Wyo. The shared Williston-Dickinson connection in particular has created some problems with flights being at capacity, said Marburger.
These regional aircrafts hold up to 30 passengers.
“We were running full most of the time,” he said, adding “if there is any problem at all with baggage or weather, then there is no capacity there (on planes) to try to get people back the next day.”
Marburger attributes increases in boarding activity to oil field and construction workers who fly regularly to their homes.
Marburger cites convenience and inrastructure improvements as reasons people are choosing to fly from Williston rather than driving to nearby airports like Minot and Dickinson.
“Our new terminal building and the facility can handle a lot more people, so that helps too,” Marburger added. “The time you spend going to other cities from here, you’d already be in Denver.”
In addition, the airport’s free parking service plays an important role when choosing to fly from Williston.
The upcoming changes in flight connections are expected to address the airport’s problem with lack of open seats.
“There’ll still be four roundtrips, but we won’t be sharing the same plane with Dickinson,” Marburger added.
The new connections are Williston to Gillette, Wyo. to Denver; Williston to Nebraska to Denver; Williston to Cheyenne, Wyo., to Denver; and Williston to Dickinson to Denver.
On the other hand, the Dickinson route is being shared with Sidney, Mont.
“They’ll have the same number of flights, but the boarding out of Sidney won’t be as great a number as they would be in Williston,” Marburger said.
“What we are doing is reshuffling the deck “we are getting the same service, using the same people and same aircraft“ but we will have much better service because there will be less loads with our connecting cities,” said Marburger.
Among Marburger’s hopes for 2009 is the possibility of adding a fifth flight to the weekly schedule.
“Having four round trips a day is not enough, but it allows people four chances to make connections anyway,” Marburger said.
As far as future demand to fly from Williston, Marburger said “for the next few years, I see it continuing.”
Williston, however, was not the only one seeing increases in passenger boarding, as airports in Dickinson, Fargo, Grand Forks and Jamestown also reflected strong numbers for October.
Overall, at the eight North Dakota commercial airports passenger enplanement for October totaled 3,839, a 7-percent increase over October 2007, the NDAC reported in a press release.
Statewide boarding numbers stood at 59,023 passengers, an increase of 3,839 passengers from October 2007 and 12,444 passengers from 1999.
Comments
Kari wrote on Dec 7, 2008 10:24 AM:
Bruce Lee wrote on Dec 2, 2008 3:15 PM:
It is a shame Big Sky does not fly to Bismarck or Billings from Williston any longer however. Or anywhere for that matter. "