Airport preps for busy summer

Glacier Park International Airport earlier this month put a request into the Transportation Security Administration for a third X-ray bag scanner in anticipation of increased traffic this coming summer.

United Airlines announced in February that it would be expanding its service to the Glacier airport starting in July. Shortly after United announced it would be doing round-trip daily service to San Francisco this summer, GPI Director Rob Ratkowski started planning for the increased demands of added flights.

“There’s going to be a noticeable increase,” Ratkowski said. “We stand to have probably at least 200 more people to come through each day.”

The airport at one point previously had three bag scanners. The TSA adds or removes equipment based on the amount of traffic an airport receives, and removed the third scanner.

“If one of the two were to break down, it would be a problem [this summer],” Ratkowski said.

In response to Ratkowski’s request, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines wrote a letter to the TSA on Wednesday urging the approval of a third scanner.

“Air transportation is critical to communities around Montana,” Daines wrote in the letter. “GPI provides reliable air service for nearly 250,000 passengers per year, enabling economic growth and allowing thousands of tourists to visit Glacier National Park and the Flathead Valley every year.”

GPI has had five record-breaking years of increases in passenger traffic, with last year exceeding the previous year’s record with 492,522 passengers — almost 5 percent more than 2015.

In addition to the daily round-trip flights to San Francisco, United announced that it will be increasing the flight capacity by 17 percent for two of the four weekly flights to Denver this summer.

By upgrading two of the flights from United Express to United Airlines, the larger flights will have space for an estimated 128 passengers.

With the added flights and increased flight capacity, Ratkowski says the airport is anticipating another record year.

Reporter Alyssa Gray may be reached at 758-4433 or agray@dailyinterlake.com.