Passenger traffic at Minot International Airport showed little change in 2008 compared with recent years.

Airport Manager Patrick Dame says the number of people getting onto and off of Northwest Airlines jets was up slightly from 2007,

but down a bit from the longer-term average.

Dame says the addition of another airline - offering service to the west - would be the number one way of dramatically increasing passenger traffic.

He says the city will continue to look for ways to use a 500-thousand dollar grant to build an incentive package to bring in a second airline.

(Patrick Dame, Minot Airport Manager) "We want to fill our grant by getting a westbound service in here and by doing that, getting our numbers up. I'm pretty confident that if we can provide service in both directions that we can get our numbers up by about 30% at least." VO CONTINUES Dame says city officials are pursuing any airline willing to meet on the subject. He hopes the airline industry will show some desire for growth this year.

(Patrick Dame, Minot Airport Manager) "We hope with the lower cost of fuel that some of the airlines will break loose and start moving toward expanding some services, but we have gotten some indication that they are pulling some services down yet."


In Williston, final figures for 2008 are not in yet, but Airport Manager Rick Marburger says passenger traffic was up between 30 and 40 percent for the year.

By the way, Patrick Dame at the Minot Airport says he's seen a significant drop in Northwest ticket prices lately - down by about 200 dollars per ticket. watch the video | save this article / add to your favorites list