North Dakota’s commercial service airports finished 2022 with a statewide total of more than a million airline passenger boardings. This is an overall increase of 16% from 2021. Kyle Wanner, Executive Director of the ND Aeronautics Commission, says more and more people have been wanting to save time by flying to their destinations.
"You know, talking to people they really do value the good, reliable air service. Thats a really on important thing for a rural state like North Dakota, which is in the center, north center of the continent, so having strong air service is really important and I think that's another reason why North Dakota has seen such a large recovery."
Wanner says 2022’s numbers could have been higher if not for the harsh winter storms and fewer flights due to a pilot shortage.
"That's going to be the main struggle moving forward, it's just getting the airlines to add capacity to the system, once they do that, I would be pretty confident that we can reach not only ore-pandemic levels, but we can see record breaking numbers in North Dakota moving forward. But a few things need to happen first."