Bozeman Yellowstone Int'l Sets 9th Consecutive Passenger Record in 2018 with Over 1.34 Million Passengers Traveling Through Montana's Busiest Airport

BOZEMAN, MT (January 9, 2019). Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN) handled 1,342,290 passengers during 2018. This is an increase of 142,753 passengers (11.9%) compared to 2017 and is the ninth consecutive year of record breaking passenger traffic. Annual passenger traffic has nearly doubled over the past 10 years and accounts for 30% of all airline passengers traveling to and from Montana.

During 2018, expanded service to Portland (Alaska Airlines), San Francisco (United Airlines) and Los Angeles (United Airlines) resulted in the seventh, eighth and ninth daily year-round destinations out of BZN. In addition, Frontier expanded Denver service to year-round and Allegiant expanded Phoenix/Mesa service to year-round. BZN also added its 16th non-stop destination, Long Beach, Californica when JetBlue became the seventh airline serving the airport. The fastest growing market out of BZN during the year was United’s non-stop service to Newark/New York (daily summer and winter) with a 131% increase in seats. Looking forward into 2019, BZN will see Delta add the 17th non-stop destination out of BZN when they add Saturday service to/from Detroit for the month of March.

The Air Traffic Control Tower handled an all-time record 90,502 aircraft operations during the year, up 18.7%. Business aviation operations increased 23% to 8,792. General aviation accounts for 70% of aircraft operations, scheduled passenger and cargo airline service accounts for approximately 20% with business aviation accounting for the remaining 10%. There were 135 general aviation international arrivals handled at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office at BZN during the year.

In 2018, BZN rehabilitated its main runway, continued construction of a new 1,100 stall multi-use parking garage that will open June 2019 and began design of a four-gate terminal concourse expansion. In addition, four new hangars were constructed at the airport and Central Valley Fire District began construction of their new fire station on leased airport land. BZN is the eighth busiest airport in the 7-state Northwest Region of the country (region including Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington) and the 107th busiest airport in the nation in terms of passengers.

Passenger totals in and out by airline brand in 2018 were:
• United Airlines – 482,631
• Delta Air Lines – 474,525
• Alaska Airlines – 175,541
• American Airlines – 112,593
• Allegiant Air – 64,665
• Frontier Airlines – 26,803
• JetBlue – 1,025
• Chartered Airline Flights – 4,507

About Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport
Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN) is Montana’s busiest airport and serves as a year-round gateway to Yellowstone National Park. BZN also serves the recreation areas of Big Sky Resort and Bridger Bowl as well as the business centers of Bozeman, Belgrade and Livingston and higher education at Montana State University and the Gallatin College. BZN handles more passengers than any other Montana airport and is served by seven airline brands with coast to coast non-stop service including Atlanta*, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Detroit*, Houston*, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Long Beach, Newark*, New York LaGuardia*, Phoenix-Mesa, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Seattle/Tacoma. Nearly 1,000 people are employed by the 37 entities with offices at the airport. * Denotes seasonal service