Busiest First Quarter On Record

Airline passenger traffic in March at Hector International Airport showed an increase as compared to the same month in 2007.  In March 2008, the passenger enplanements were 27,338.  This is an increase of 3.3% when compared to the March 2007 passenger enplanements of 26,454. Total passenger count for the month was 57,374, which is up 4.8% over the same period last year.

The first quarter of 2008 was the busiest on record for Hector.  79,287 passengers departed the airport and 158,158 total passengers departed/arrived.

In March 2008, Northwest Airlines operated eight daily flights to Minneapolis with Airbus A319/320, DC-9, EMB-175, CRJ900 and CRJ200 aircraft.  United Express operated four daily flights to Chicago and four daily flights to Denver with the Canadair CRJ200 and CRJ700.  Delta Connection operated one daily flight to Salt Lake City with the Canadair CRJ200 aircraft.  Allegiant Air operates three-weekly flights to Las Vegas and two weekly flights to Phoenix/Mesa utilizing the 150-seat McDonnell Douglas MD-83.

For the month of March, Northwest Airlines had 51% of the market share, United Express at 26% Delta Connection at 3% and Allegiant Air at 20% with a daily average of 1,851 passengers both arriving and departing.