Passenger boardings last year at Minot International Airport rebounded by 48.6% over pandemic-related lows in 2020, according to the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission. Airlines recovered 76% of their 2019 boardings in Minot as air passengers began returning to airports across the state.

North Dakota’s commercial service airports finished calendar year 2021 with a statewide total of 886,809 airline passenger boardings. This is an increase of 314,716 passengers or a 55% increase from 2020. All eight commercial service airports were able to provide services to more passengers in 2021 than they did in the previous calendar year, the aeronautics commission reported.

Minot saw 125,762 passenger boardings in 2021, up from 84,601 in 2020. There were 165,988 passenger boardings in 2019.

In 2021, the airports also tallied 887,914 passenger deplanements for a total of 1,774,723 passengers (enplanements and deplanements) who traveled through the commercial service terminal buildings of North Dakota over the past year.

Airline boardings have been adversely affected since the beginning of the pandemic, when the state experienced an immediate 95% percent decline in passenger numbers during April in 2020. Since that time, the state has been continually trending in a positive direction and in recent months, the recovery in passenger demand has grown to an average of 17% below 2019’s pre-pandemic levels, the aeronautics commission stated.

The commission continued to note the recent growth in demand throughout 2021 also has encouraged airlines to begin looking to add more flights, destinations and seat capacity to airports, although challenges with workforce shortages have limited their up-scaling ability.

“The past year was one of significant challenges for the aviation industry as it worked to accommodate a large recovery in passenger demand while proactively mitigating risks associated with the pandemic and workforce shortages.” said Kyle Wanner, executive director of the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission. “Amongst these challenges, North Dakota’s airline passenger demand is within reach of a full recovery to 2019’s pre-pandemic levels. The success of the ongoing recovery showcases the resiliency of our state as well as the importance that aviation transportation provides to all of our communities.”