By Nick Smith

Staff Writer

Airport boardings for the month of September were down in Williston compared to 2008, but continued a months-long trend of being very strong despite being down.

According to numbers released by the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission Friday morning, there were 949 boardings at Sloulin Field International Airport in September. This was a decrease of just under 7.6 percent from last year's 1,027 boardings.

It was a decrease from 2008, but as in the case of the last several months, it was the highest number of boardings in any year in the past decade. The closest September boarding numbers have come since 2000 to this year's was in 2007, when there were 639. Airport Manager Rick Marburger said numbers continue to be extremely impressive and it doesn't show any sign of slowing down drastically anytime soon.

"I think it's good. We're running at full capacity while down one flight from last year," said Marburger.

With all the oil activity and construction in the area, Marburger said it looks as though the increased boardings and heavy traffic are going to hold for quite some time.

"We're looking to get another flight added to our schedule. That's something we're going to be working on and trying to negotiate during the next few months with one of the airlines," said Marburger.

Marburger said there are a lot of numbers and statistics they're working to gather about things such as the number of people traveling by plane, people likely to drive to which airports to fly from and so on. He said getting these will help in putting together a case for an airline to consider adding a Williston flight. Marburger said hopefully they can get an airline to add a flight because it would help increase their capacity.

"I'm convinced we'll have the numbers to justify it, I'm not entirely confident that the airlines will agree," said Marburger.

September boardings at North Dakota's eight commercial airports were up 12 percent over last year. Total boardings numbered 56,477, an increase of 6,076 over last year and set a 10-year high of September boardings in the state.