Аэропорт Джеймстаун ожидает исторический рекорд пассажиропотока и завершает масштабную реконструкцию терминала

JAMESTOWN — The Jamestown Regional Airport is on pace for 12,000 paid passenger boardings this year, according to the airport director. “We've consistently had months that are over 1,000 passenger boardings, so really that does put us on pace for an over 12,000 passenger boarding annual total,” Katie Hemmer said. ADVERTISEMENT She said the Jamestown Regional Airport has seen an increase in passenger boardings throughout 2026. The Jamestown Regional Airport had 7,843 paid passenger boardings through July for an average of 1,120 per month. The airport recorded 1,572 paid passenger boardings in July, the highest number of July enplanements in the airport’s history. “People are satisfied with their service because a lot of them are returning customers,” she said. “It says that we are able to accommodate some of the demand that's out there.” The airport’s highest one-year total for paid passenger boardings was in 2017 with 12,865. She said 2018 was the closest to the 12,000 mark with 11,808 paid passenger boardings. Jamestown Regional Airport offers direct flights to and from Denver on United Airlines, which is operated by SkyWest Airlines. SkyWest will provide essential air service at the Jamestown and Devils Lake airports through June 2027. Hemmer said Jamestown Regional Airport will need to account for no passenger boardings during the two weeks — Aug. 17-31 — when the airport will temporarily close to all commercial aircraft traffic for planned runway construction and rehabilitation work. “We've really built ourselves a pretty good cushion coming into it,” she said, referring to the number of paid passenger boardings this year. ADVERTISEMENT If the airport gets 10,000 paid passenger boardings in a year, it qualifies for $1 million in entitlement funds from the federal Airport Improvement Program. Hemmer said Jamestown Regional Airport sees some increases in paid passenger boardings in the summer. “People have an opportunity to travel when they're not in the school year, where they have more flexibility for their actual vacation,” she said. She said other peak times include around the holiday season from Thanksgiving till after the New Year’s Day holiday as well as in late February to early April. Hemmer said having 50 seats dedicated to passengers from Jamestown Regional Airport is the biggest change contributing to the increase in paid passenger boardings. The linked-route arrangement with Devils Lake Regional Airport stopped last summer. Both airports now offer direct flights to and from Denver without a stop to Devils Lake or Jamestown before departing to Denver. “That created a lot more capacity in the aircraft,” Hemmer said. “That is really encouraging because we know that the demand is there for that, and we couldn't see what that demand was when we were still sharing the aircraft ... .” ADVERTISEMENT She said the availability of seats when they are needed influences the number of passenger boardings. “So sometimes what happens is you need to travel on Thursday or Friday, and if that capacity had been taken out of the Jamestown market, you don't necessarily change to a different day for your travel. You would change to a different airport,” Hemmer said. “I think what we're capturing now is that there was a demand on some of those highest travel days, and we can accommodate it now that we have all 50 seats available for the Jamestown region.” She said SkyWest and United have worked together with the airport to continue encouraging people to fly in and out of Jamestown. “They are making sure that we have really market-driven prices,” she said. “That's a big key to making sure that there's an opportunity to fly out of Jamestown.” Although the airport is on pace for over 12,000 paid passenger boardings, Hemmer said there is more demand to fly out of Jamestown that the airport still hasn’t captured. She said having an early-morning departure from Jamestown would help capture some of that demand. “We don't know exactly what we're missing out right now because they're not able to book their connection out of Jamestown,” she said. “A couple additional things within our schedule would really make an impact, and I think we'd see even bigger demand for Jamestown passengers.” Airport projects The work on the main runway from Aug. 17-31 consists of a crack seal, seal coat and new markings. ADVERTISEMENT “What we're trying to do with our pavement rehabilitation across the airfield is to make sure that on a regular basis we're providing crack sealing and seal coat,” Hemmer said. “That way we will hopefully not have to do larger projects like mills and overlays or total reconstruction.” She said the seal coat will help seal in all the aggregate that could potentially break out and cause a problem for the aircraft. She said the new markings allow pilots to safely land an aircraft. “So by doing a little bit of maintenance on a regular basis, we're extending the longevity of the pavement, decreasing our capital costs over the long run, and really creating a paved surface that offers the very best in safety as far as being the quality of pavement,” Hemmer said. During the same two-week period, other improvements will be made across the airfield, including a seal coat and new markings on both taxiways that support the main runway and a mill-and-overlay project on taxiway bravo. “That is going to bring the whole airfield to a place where every pavement has been rehabilitated,” she said. Work will also be done to the airport’s terminal during the two-week period. The terminal will be expanded and electrical outlets will be added to the seating islands so individuals can charge their devices. “Hopefully we get the majority of the work done before the passengers are back ... ,” she said. ADVERTISEMENT She said travelers affected by the closure to all commercial aircraft traffic should communicate with United. She said United should have reached out to anyone who booked a flight from Aug. 17-31 from Jamestown so the flight could be rebooked at another location. “If you are trying to book a flight during that time and you're just seeing no flights available, understand that it's not no flights available ever, it's just during that time period,” she said. Hemmer also said construction on the airport’s snow-removal equipment building is expected to be complete by the end of October.