“It's going to be a very substantial increase,” said Rob Ratkowski, airport manager of operations. “We'll be busy, that's for sure.”
Busy, for instance, with United Airlines, a carrier brand new to the Flathead Valley.
And Delta Air Lines, he said, will add a nonstop trip to Atlanta on Tuesdays and Saturdays, from June 9 on through summer.
Add in the three new Salt Lake City flights offered by Delta's commuter, Skywest, and the number of passengers traveling daily through Glacier Park International Airport will increase from about 780 to nearly 1,400, Ratkowski said.
“It's going to be exciting,” he said, “but it's also going to be challenging. We're making several changes to the building to accommodate more people.”
They're relocating the security checkpoint, he said, a move that will both speed lines and create more passenger waiting area near the gates.
Airport staff also will add a third boarding door at ground level, as well as one more airplane parking space on the ramp.
Queues will be redirected, Ratkowski said, to help absorb the expected crowds.
In fact, he said, some of those crowds are more than expected - they're already booked.
“All the advance bookings on those new flights are really strong,” he said. “We're already overbooked in July; not every day, but there are days when there are no seats left. This is definitely going to be a big year.”
Perhaps adding to the big year is a $5 million plan to repave a major runway at Missoula International Airport. That work, beginning in late August, will disrupt commercial flights for parts of three consecutive weeks.
Travelers rerouting to avoid the Missoula construction may end up passing through other regional airports.
“We certainly know that some will spill over to other nearby airports,” said Cris Jensen, director at Missoula's airport.
Missoula's service, he said, is growing rapidly, too, with several new nonstop flights taking off in early June. United, Jensen said, will run daily roundtrips to Chicago, and twice on Sundays. United also is bringing to Missoula another Denver link, bringing service to the Mile High City four times a day.
And Horizon Air, he said, has promised a fourth daily flight to Seattle, a trip that will no longer stop in Kalispell.
If full, those new flights should bring about 1,300 new passengers each month to Missoula, he said, which is about the number of seats the airport now handles each day.
It's not a huge increase, Jensen said, but it's enough that with other recent growth, his airport has been compelled to build. Just this spring, Jensen opened the doors on 18,000 square feet of new terminal space at Missoula.
“We're definitely growing,” he said, and in fact last year his airport was one of the few regional airports to post increased passenger numbers.
“The whole area is on the uptick,” Ratkowski said. “That's been the trend for some time now.”
The trend is clear in the numbers. In 1975, about 26,000 passengers boarded planes in Kalispell. A decade later, in 1985, the number had more than doubled to nearly 56,000. By 1995, a whopping 115,223 passengers boarded planes at Glacier Park International, and in 2005 the number topped 190,000.
“There's a lot of demand out there these days,” Ratkowski said. “There just doesn't seem to be an end to it.”
Reporter Michael Jamison can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at mjamison@missoulian.com
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