Airport sees recovery in passenger use

The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t been kind to commercial airports.

As the lockdown and the subsequent health orders have dissuaded people from using air travel, airports around the country have reported large decreases in commercial air travel.

The Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport is no different, reporting a 74% decrease in passenger county from last year.

In 2019, the airport reported 30,083 passengers utilizing commercial air service out of Rock Springs at the end of September, while only having 7,763 so far in 2020.

Devon Brubaker, the airport’s manager, said the airport is recovering better than the national average up until September, when the airport recorded 1,334 commercial passengers. The previous month, the airport had 1,563 passengers.

“This was largely due to the return to school as well as four cancelled flights due to the Labor Day week blizzard,” he wrote in an email to the Star.

He said advance bookings in the final three months of the year suggest the airport may have higher usage than when was recorded in August. However, he said that isn’t guaranteed.

“... if the current increase in COVID-19 cases continues, I would expect these numbers to fall,” he said.

Brubaker also said customers are waiting longer to book tickets, often buying them closer to their travel dates, which makes predicting those numbers more difficult.

“We have seen over the last few months that even a momentary increase in cases over a couple of days has a dramatic effect on airline bookings,” he said.