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Helena Regional Airport reports record-setting year

Posted at 9:48 PM, Jan 17, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-18 11:53:48-05

HELENA – The Helena Regional Airport is reporting a record-setting number of passengers flying in and out of Helena in 2018.

The airport saw a total of 233,581 passengers last year which is an 11.7 percent increase over 2017 where they saw 209,027 passengers.

“That 11 percent represents the second fastest growing airport in Montana so we’re really pleased with 2018,” said Airport Business & Compliance Manager Ross Marty.

Airport staff credit that more than 20,000 person increase to the June addition of a second daily flight to Denver.

Marty believes the airport will continue to see more passenger growth in 2019 related to the Denver flight.

Marty also noted they are currently seeing some significant strides being made towards the new airport terminal.

“Right now we’re slated to move into our phase 1 here towards the end of March and beginning of April,” said Marty, “That hasn’t impacted flights at all. It hasn’t impacted schedules or the amount of seats that are available into our market. So we should be seeing some vast changes here pretty soon.”

Marty said in the next year the airport will continue to pursue getting a second daily flight into Seattle.

“We’re constantly working with Alaska Airlines to see where things might go in the future,” noted Marty.

Additional flight destinations are also currently being investigated with the airport working on potentially adding flights to Portland, San Francisco or Phoenix.

Reporting by John Riley for MTN News