Air Passenger Traffic Slowdown 'Unprecedented,' Bismarck Airport Director Says
Help support our COVID-19 coverage
We're providing access to COVID-19 articles for free. Please help support our work by subscribing or signing up for an account. Already a subscriber? Log in.
Become a Member
1 of 2
Open spots in the long-term parking lot at the Bismarck Airport are a visual testament to how the coronavirus pandemic has affected air travel this spring.
MIKE MCCLEARY, TRIBUNE
The parking lot of the Bismarck Airport was full during the 2019 holiday season.
PROVIDED
SMS
Save
Bismarck Airport Director Greg Haug has seen the effects other major events have had on air travel, but even the shutdown caused by the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 doesn't compare to the hit being dealt by the coronavirus pandemic.
“This one is absolutely unprecedented in the way it’s reduced passengers to little or nothing,” he said.
Passenger numbers are down by as much as 95% across the country as travelers cancel or simply don’t book flights, Haug said, and Bismarck's airport is feeling the same crunch. Numbers at the Bismarck terminal vary daily but are mostly consistent with the national figures. It could lead to a revenue hit of an estimated $1.5 million for the facility, Haug said.
A bad March
March, usually one of the busiest months at the airport, started out with great promise. March 4 was the third-busiest day in airport history with 1,429 passengers passing through the security checkpoint. But the terminal also had its worst day ever last month, with only 34 passengers boarding flights on March 30.
“March was about half of March last year,” Haug said. It was a month of stark contrast, the first half going “gangbusters,” the director said, and the second half being one of the worst on record.
“I’m sure April’s not going to be good,” Haug said. He estimates that the pandemic -- if it lasts three months and cuts passenger numbers by 75% -- will put a $1.5 million dent in airport revenues.
A federal grant for operating expenses will offset $1.2 million of that, and a 10% increase in funding to capital improvement grants for airports should cover the rest.
The 23 city employees who operate and maintain the airport are considered essential employees and will continue to work through the pandemic.
March 2020 boardings at all eight of North Dakota's commercial airports when compared to the same month in 2019 were down anywhere from 23% at Devils Lake to 49% at Grand Forks, according to the state Aeronautics Commission. Fargo's airport in the third month of 2020 handled 17,000 fewer passengers than in March 2019. For Bismarck, the March comparison shows a drop from 27,623 passengers in 2019 to 14,453 in 2020.
Proposed breaks
Airlines have had to “collapse a whole daily schedule” by adjusting flights, parking planes, rescheduling crews and taking cancellations on the day of a flight, Haug said. At times during the second half of March, airplanes with 100 seats were leaving Bismarck with more crew members than passengers on board.
The airlines can’t keep operating like that, according to Haug.
“It’s tough on them. They’re hemorrhaging money,” he said.
Normally the airport handles 16 flights a day. That number has dwindled to four or five.
“It’s pretty thin, and rightfully so under the circumstances,” Haug said.
The Bismarck City Commission on Tuesday is scheduled to vote on an airport proposal to defer three months of rent and fees for airlines, spreading the amount over the final six months of the year.
The proposal also includes various breaks for aeronautics companies based at the airport, concessionaires, car rental companies and the parking company.
Last week there were about 100 cars in the airport's parking lot on a daily basis, down from the seasonal average of 800-900 and a peak of 1,100. The terminal remains open but offices are closed to the public. Maintenance workers who in the past cleaned touch surfaces and seats daily have upped those efforts to twice a day. Aircraft rescue and firefighting personnel are still in place but stay behind locked doors to avoid contracting or spreading the virus. Crews must be available 15 minutes before and after every flight and are specifically trained to fight aircraft fuel fires.
“Those folks are absolutely essential for us to keep the airport open and to keep the airlines flying,” Haug said. “We would have to go to some great lengths to bring in some other folks to be able to perform that function in order to be able to continue the airline operations.”
Traveler impacts
The cutbacks have impacted travelers including U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, who planned to fly back to Washington, D.C., on March 26. His flight from Bismarck was canceled for lack of passengers, so he flew out of Minot.
“There were eight people on the Minot flight,” the Republican congressman said. Half of the 10 people on the second leg of his trip from Minneapolis to the nation's capital were congressional representatives, he said. It was a big plane, and the flight attendants spaced the passengers to keep them at least 6 feet apart, practicing social distancing.
“When you fly as much as I do, trying to go back and forth from D.C., it’s concerning that you might not have the ability to get back,” Armstrong said. “They’re not going to fly those flights if there are two or three people on board.”
Armstrong said he sees the importance that air travel plays in the nation’s economy, and that the state’s airports provide quality service and are suffering through no fault of their own.
“They need to keep running,” he said.
Haug is hopeful that airline traffic will start a steady increase in May and be back to normal levels by late summer or fall. Health and government officials have warned that the coronavirus could lull during the warmer months and flare up again in the fall.
“Hopefully we won’t see the same kind of effects in fall,” Haug said.
Reach Travis Svihovec at 701-250-8260 or [email protected]
Concerned about COVID-19?
Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.
Sign up!
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Crime and Courts Reporter
———
©2020 The Bismarck Tribune (Bismarck, N.D.)
Visit The Bismarck Tribune (Bismarck, N.D.) at www.bismarcktribune.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
