City airport has decline

Boardings at Sloulin Field International Airport in May were down significantly from last year according to recently released boarding numbers.

The number of boardings in May totaled 789, which is a drastic decline from the 1,083 boardings in May 2008; a difference of over 27 percent. The total boardings in May weren’t much different from last month, however, with the 789 May boardings only down from 809 in April.

Airport Manager Rick Marburger attributes the decline mainly to the number of active oil wells. He said the number of active wells right now compared to this time last year are far fewer.

“There are less people here from out of town working and living here for a few weeks before flying back home to their families out of state in places like Oklahoma and Texas,” said Marburger.

Marburger said he’s observed the price of oil is rising and the number of oil wells in operation should be increasing very soon with the warm weather finally here to stay. He’s already observed the airport parking being full on a daily basis and thinks with more people in town to work, the numbers should increase shortly.

“Once the load restrictions came off, there’s more construction, more oil rigs are drilling again. We’ll just have to wait and see for next month,” said Marburger.

Statewide, boarding numbers were down overall for May compared to last year. The total number of boardings in May were 57,172, down from 57,525 at the same time last year, a decline of 0.6 percent.

Boardings were down at almost every airport in North Dakota, with only the airports in Bismarck and Grand Forks having slight increases in May 2009 compared to 2008.