BOZEMAN, Mont. — An estimated three million Americans took to the skies this Christmas weekend.
At Bozeman Yellowstone International airport, despite seeing a slight uptick in travelers over the holiday weekend, officials say numbers are still down 40% from where they were in 2019.
“You know, compared to what we saw earlier in December, it was certainly an uptick which is normal this time of year,” said Brian Sprenger, the airport’s director.
He said despite still being down from last year’s numbers, the airport is doing better than the national average.
According to AAA, analysts expected holiday air travel to be down almost 60% from where it was in 2019, with as many as 84 million Americans still traveling between Dec. 23 and Jan. 3.
However, with the new year around the corner, Sprenger said they’re still anticipating an increase in winter vacation travelers.
“We will certainly see the typical increase that we would normally see this year compared to other times of the year, but I think the base is really going to be lower,” Sprenger said. “Right now we’re expecting probably to be down 30 to 40% through a lot of the winter.”
As a popular snow activity destination, Sprenger thinks the amount of people the airport sees will still be dependent on personal situations.
“I think it’s really kind of a result of what people’s comfort level is on a national basis,” he said. “We’re trending about twice as high as passenger recovery is the rest of the nation, but there are just so many unknowns out there.”
Officials hope to have a resurgence in passenger numbers around mid-2021.
Until then, they want anyone who decides to travel to feel safe, adding COVID-19 precautions like mandatory face masks and enhanced cleaning are still in place.
