{"id":31555,"date":"2023-09-21T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-airport-reports-16-increase-in-summer-passengers\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:42:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:42:52","slug":"durango-airport-reports-16-increase-in-summer-passengers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-airport-reports-16-increase-in-summer-passengers\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango airport reports 16% increase in summer passengers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Tony
Tony Vicari, manager of the Durango-La Plata County Airport, said passenger traffic is up 16% this summer from June through August. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Durango-La Plata County Airport is reporting a 16% increase in passenger traffic between June and August compared to the same months in 2022.<\/p>\n

Tony Vicari, aviation director for the airport, said the numbers are up in part because fewer flights and smaller planes were servicing the airport at this time last year. That was a trend at regional airports nationwide, he said, because of a pilot shortage post-pandemic.<\/p>\n

Those constraints are starting to ease, he said. Seat capacity \u2013 or the total number of seats available \u2013 are up 17% this year at DRO, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest things that\u2019s driven the increase from \u201922 to \u201923 in the summer, and really all year, has been that we\u2019re just seeing more seats put back into the market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Airlines have also been using larger aircraft like the 126-seat Airbus to service the airport, he said.<\/p>\n

The increase in passenger numbers is occurring relatively evenly across the different types of travel, including local leisure use, visitor traffic and business travel, Vicari said. If there is any fluctuation, it is a slight downtick in leisure travel and a slight uptick in business travel, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing strength, kind of across the board,\u201d Vicari said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like we\u2019re seeing a huge surge in tourism or a huge surge in local traffic. It\u2019s just strong, steady demand from both areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Business travel decreased significantly nationwide during COVID-19 as companies sought to cut costs, reduce exposure and rely more on virtual meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur business travel is still not anywhere close to recovering to levels that we were seeing pre-pandemic, but we\u2019re seeing a steadier jump this year,\u201d Vicari said.<\/p>\n

Here is a breakdown on total numbers:<\/p>\n

In June, enplaned passenger traffic totaled 18,787, a 5% increase from June 2022.In July, enplaned passenger traffic totaled 20,629, a 17% increase from July 2022.In August, enplaned passenger traffic totaled 21,022, a 26% increase from August 2022.<\/div>\n

The airport has been reporting steady growth since the early 2000s, when it served about 200,000 total passengers a year. By comparison, the airport expects to serve 400,000 passengers this year.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Durango-La Plata County Airport has reported steady growth in total passenger numbers during the past two decades, from about 200,000 passengers in 2000 compared with 400,000 passengers in 2021. (Courtesy city of Durango)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

To keep pace with the increased traffic, the airport in April began work on a $36 million terminal expansion that will be done in two phases and is expected to be fully completed by Summer 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a gateway and first impression to Durango, Southwest Colorado and the entire Four Corners region, the airport must provide appropriately sized and modern infrastructure to support the growing demand for air service in our community,\u201d Vicari said in a news release. \u201cPassenger traffic at DRO has more than doubled over the past 20 years, and the terminal facilities are feeling the pressure of this growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The expansion is being paid for by federal grants and revenue generated from airport tenants and users in the form of airline rent and landing fees, terminal concessions, ground leases and parking fees. It does not receive any local tax funding.<\/p>\n

shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

flights and larger planes contributed to higher numbers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,915,28,1187,1469],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-durango-la-plata-county-airport","tag-headlines","tag-tourism","tag-travel-and-commuting"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81485,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31555\/revisions\/81485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31555"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}