No matter how you look at it, the Bozeman Airport (BZN) has recovered from the pandemic. As a matter of fact, BZN ranks in the top three airports in the country for post-pandemic growth in various breakdowns of the data.
In addition to being perceived as a relatively "safe" place to visit during the pandemic, where social distancing and outdoor activities could be enjoyed, BZN also benefitted from the introduction of new airlines in recent years. Sun Country entered the market in the summer of 2020, followed by Southwest Airlines in 2021.
Of the 100 busiest airports in the U.S., measured by total seats scheduled in third quarter 2019 versus third quarter 2022, BZN saw the third greatest increase in capacity at 47%.
View On the Fly's chart and article here.
Bozeman, along with cities like Sarasota, Florida; Palm Springs, California; and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; stayed relatively busy even during the pandemic and are now benefiting from unleashed pent-up leisure demand.
A recent
article on Simple Flying showed that BZN has 159% of the seats available in October 2022 that were available in October 2019, before the pandemic. Even the world's busiest passenger airport, Atlanta (ATL), has only recovered to just 88% of it's pre-pandemic numbers.
In another remarkable measurement, BZN ranked sixth in
Travel and Leisure's review of the nations 50th to 150th largest airports to find the best small-scale American airports to fly into. Obviously, destinations that don't have a lot of adverse weather to contend with, like those in Hawaii and Florida made the list, but two Montana airports - Bozeman and Kalispell - also made the top 10. The research company that reviewed the data looked at arrival delay rates, flight cancellation rates and average airfare from December 2020 to November 2021.
