Traffic rebounds at Gillette airport

Traffic rebounds at Gillette airport
 
GILLETTE (WNE) — Last year was a rebound year for the Northeast Wyoming Regional Airport, but its numbers weren’t quite back to pre-pandemic levels.
After a 2020 that saw fewer than 30,000 passengers use the local airport, which was the lowest mark in years, the airport had 48,481 passengers in 2021.
It’s a 63% increase over 2020, which had 29,742, but it’s 19% lower than 2019, which came in at 59,872.
The year started out slowly, with the first four months failing to cross the 3,000 passenger mark. But starting with May, every month for the rest of the year had at least 3,700 passengers.
Unsurprisingly, the summer months were the airport’s busiest. June, July and August all crossed the 5,000 passenger mark, with July having the most passengers at 5,546.
The monthly average during 2021 was 4,040 passengers, up from 2020’s average of 2,479 but down compared to 2019’s 4,989.
The airport’s flights have been 85% full, said airport director Todd Chatfield, which is promising, considering the struggles the airline industry has been having nationwide.
Between staffing shortages, increasing operation costs and COVID-19 variants, there are fewer planes and pilots to go around.
There were days last summer where Gillette had three flights. Moving forward, that most likely won’t be the case.
“We’re probably looking, at the most in the summer, two flights a day roundtrip,” Chatfield said.
 
This story was published on Jan. 11.