Good start for North Dakota airports in 2023

Bismarck, North Dakota – Almost 90,000 passengers were boarded at North Dakota’s eight commercial airports in January, up 24 percent from January 2018 and 1.5 percent from 2019.

The North Dakota Aeronautics Commission claims that 2019 is used as a benchmark to determine when airline boardings have fully recovered to their pre-pandemic levels. At the eight commercial airports, 89,709 passengers departed on flights in January 2019. The figure for January was 90,979.

If the pattern holds, 2023 might be seen as the year when the recovery is complete.

“Air service demand throughout North Dakota is significantly stronger than one year ago and we are excited to see that the numbers are beginning to track above 2019’s pre-pandemic passenger counts,” Executive Director Kyle Wanner said.