Airline passenger traffic in October at Hector International Airport showed an increase as compared to the same month in 2007.  In October 2008, the passenger enplanements were 26,908.  This is an increase of 12.7% when compared to the October 2007 passenger enplanements of 23,779. This was the busiest October on record at Hector in terms of enplaned passengers and the sixth month in a row of record enplanements.

Total passenger count for the month was 53,313, which is up 12.9% over the same period last year.  This was the busiest October on record in terms of total passengers.

In October 2008, Northwest Airlines operated eight daily flights to Minneapolis with Airbus A319/320, EMB-175, CRJ900 and CRJ200 aircraft.  United Express operated four daily flights to Chicago and three daily flights to Denver with the Canadair CRJ200.  Allegiant Air operates two-weekly flights to Las Vegas and two weekly flights to Phoenix/Mesa utilizing the  McDonnell Douglas MD-83.  Frontier Airlines operates twice-daily service to Denver utilizing the Bombardier Q400 aircraft.

For the month of October, Northwest Airlines had 49% of the market share, United Express at 32%, Allegiant Air at 10%  and Frontier at 9% with a daily average of 1,720 passengers both arriving and departing.