Northwest Montana News

Missoula International Airport in Missoula, Montana, has been seeing drops in passengers and daily flights as airlines discuss potential closures for domestic flights. 

Current airport traffic is only at 20% of what it typically is for this time of the year, airport officials told the Missoula Current. Typically, there should be around 1,500 passengers catching a flight, but there have been around 200 per day. 

Airport director Cris Jensen told the Current: “Our traffic is certainly down. We are seeing airlines selectively cancel flights based upon loads and trying to consolidate passengers in the aircraft, as opposed to flying multiple airplanes with fewer passengers.”

Scott Sheldon, Allegiant Airlines CEO, said the airline has greatly reduced their flight schedules and temporarily rescheduled other flights. 

“We have reduced our flight schedule significantly, but are working to preserve flights where we are able,” Sheldon told the paper. 

Jensen said passengers have been making last-minute changes or not showing up at all, which greatly affects the airport’s revenues. 

“It’s a day-by-day thing right now, certainly for the airlines and for the airport. As the day evolves, that tends to change, as well as passengers not showing up or making last-minute changes to their itinerary,” Jensen said to Missoula Current. “The economic impacts will be devastating. All of those things, it’s a big snowball rolling downhill right now.”

But Jensen said the airport is working on cutting back its budget. Even with cutbacks, there will still be an economic impact, the Missoula Current reported. 

“It looks to me like it’s going to be a long-term impact,” Jensen said. “Operationally, it’s going to be tight for a while. The good news is, it appears there’s an effort in D.C. to get us some relief. Just as important to us is having some flexibility...That’s really going to help us get through this period of time where it’s going to be tight.”