Eight airports in Utah offer scheduled commercial passenger service. But Salt Lake City International Airport gobbles up 98% of that business.
New preliminary data from the Federal Aviation Administration for 2018 reports that the Salt Lake City airport had 12.23 million passenger boardings in 2018, up 5.3%.
Meanwhile, all other airports in Utah combined had 286,860 boardings, meaning Salt Lake City had 43 times as many.
Officials often double the number of boardings to estimate how many people also depart planes to figure how many total passengers pass through an airport. That would be about 24.5 million in Salt Lake City last year.
Salt Lake City International was designed to handle about 10 million total passengers a year, which is why it is building a new $3.6 billion airport essentially on top of its existing facility. The first phase is scheduled to open in September 2020.
Bill Wyatt, executive director of the airport, said last week that the airport expects 26 million passengers to pass through the airport this year, and 28 million next year. Data released by the airport last week predicts the airport may see up to 43 million passengers a year by 2037.
Salt Lake City International currently offers 378 daily departures to 98 nonstop destinations. About 70% of its flights are operated by Delta Air Lines, which uses Salt Lake City as a hub. The airport is also served by nine other airlines and their affiliates: AeroMexico, Alaska, American, Frontier, JetBlue, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Skywest, Southwest and United.
Here’s a look at passenger service at Utah’s other airports:
• St. George Regional Airport: It had 123,060 boardings last year, up 18.8%. But those numbers will drop dramatically this year because it is closed for four months to replace its runway damaged because of underlying clay that has expanded at varying rates.
When the airport reopens in September, it is expected to offer service from Allegiant, American, Delta and United airlines.
• Provo Municipal Airport: The FAA reports 80,296 boardings there last year, down 12.3%. It is served by Allegiant Airlines with flights to Arizona and Southern California.
• Wendover Airport: It reported 29,329 boardings there last year, down 40.5%. Casinos in adjacent West Wendover, Nev., partner with SwiftAir to offer periodic promotional flights to bring in guests from 65 cities nationally.
• Ogden-Hinckley Airport: It reported 18,327 boardings, down 9.8%. Allegiant also serves that airport with flights to Phoenix/Mesa.
• Cedar City Regional Airport: It reported 15,851 boardings, up 1.6%. The airport is served by Delta Connection, and currently is offering extra flights while the St. George airport is closed.
• Canyonlands Field in Moab: The FAA reported 10,032 boardings there last year, up 7%. United Airlines offers flights there from Denver.
• Vernal Regional Airport: It had 9,276 boardings, up by 40.2%. United Airlines also offers service between it and Denver.
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