BUSIEST MONTH ON RECORD

Airline passenger traffic in July at Hector International Airport showed an increase as compared to the same month in 2007.  In July 2008, the passenger enplanements were 32,385.  This is an increase of 17.5% when compared to the July 2007 passenger enplanements of 27,571. This was the busiest July on record at Hector for enplaned passengers.

Total passenger count for the month was 64,137, which is up 14.6% over the same period last year.  This was the busiest month on record in terms of total passengers.  The previous record was set in June 2008.

In July 2008, Northwest Airlines operated eight daily flights to Minneapolis with Airbus A319/320, DC-9, EMB-175, and CRJ200 aircraft.  United Express operated four daily flights to Chicago and four daily flights to Denver with the Canadair CRJ200.  Allegiant Air operates three-weekly flights to Las Vegas and two weekly flights to Phoenix/Mesa utilizing the 150-seat McDonnell Douglas MD-83.  Frontier Airlines operates twice-daily service to Denver utilizing the Bombardier Q400 aircraft.

For the month of July, Northwest Airlines had 48% of the market share, United Express at 32%, Allegiant Air at 9%  and Frontier at 11% with a daily average of 2,069 passengers both arriving and departing.