Construction to expand a terminal is ongoing at the Billings Logan International Airport.
Director of Aviation and Transit Jeff Roach said they knew they needed more space even before the pandemic brought a boom of tourism to Montana.
The airport is perched just above the city on the sandstone Rims that surround it, about an hour from Red Lodge and the scenic Beartooth Highway into Yellowstone National Park.
Roach said the decision to go ahead with construction on a terminal expansion project turned out to be a good one. Now, they’re adding several flights to the roster.
“We’re seeing a growth,” Roach said. “That growth is pretty steady across the year because of our mix of business and tourism-related travel.”
Further west in Belgrade, Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport is also expanding its terminal in light of passenger growth. It’s currently preparing for future construction.
The airport draws more than 40 percent of the state’s passengers with its access to Yellowstone National Park and Big Sky. Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport Director Brian Sprenger said traffic ended up just a little below the projected increase because of low snowpack.
“The reality is, in January and February, we filled about a third of those seats when normally they would expect to fill about another two thirds or 80 percent of those additional seats,” Sprenger said.
Both the Billings Logan and Bozeman Yellowstone airports saw their passenger totals in January and February increase this year over last, in Bozeman by nearly 2 percent and in Billings by around 7 percent.
