BY HAYLEY HARDING JUNE 02, 2020 11:09 AM
It was supposed to have been a record-breaking year for the Boise Airport.
Instead, the number of people flying through the airport fell 94% in April from April 2019. That means highly anticipated new routes are on hold, and major airport renovations aren’t happening.
And it means you may not find the flight you’ve taken in the past to leave town. Today and through all least the rest of June, Boise does not have scheduled service to Minneapolis, Spokane, Houston or Sacramento — all cities that had service before COVID-19.
Spokesperson Sean Briggs said that there were on average 71 scheduled departures a day in June 2019. In 2020, officials estimate that number will be 31. That would be a sharp improvement from 18 in May and a slight improvement from 29 in April.
“Airlines are making schedule adjustments quite often,” Briggs said in an email.
Data from the airport show that only 18,086 people flew through Boise in April. More than 300,000 people flew in April 2019.
Only 807,396 people have flown through the airport from January through April, down more than a third from the 1.2 million in the same period last year.