Airport reports record year, concourse expansion progress

More travelers than ever passed through the Sioux Falls Regional Airport in 2024.

The airport reported that more than 1.4 million passengers got on or off a flight for the year, 6.8 percent ahead of the record set in 2023.

“We had a really strong December — it was over 13 percent ahead of last December,” executive director Dan Letellier said. “So lots of people traveling, much stronger traffic numbers than I would have estimated at the start of the year.”

For the first two-thirds of the year, there also were fewer seats available than the year prior, he said.

Allegiant Air added capacity later in the year, which helped boost the seat load, and overall the airport averaged 86 percent full in its flights, “which is really strong,” he said.

Airlines considering expanding in Sioux Falls will look at revenue generated, Letellier said.

“Certainly when you have that strong of demand and your available seats have stayed the same, your revenue generated is going to be higher,” he said. “We try to keep our airport costs as low as possible, so they do generate a good return.”

It has helped maintain schedules and grow some service over the year, he said. While staffing issues have gotten “a little better now,” airlines are waiting on delayed new aircraft, which is slowing growth in some cases.

“All the major carriers — United, American, Delta — are looking at some capacity increases, 2 to 3 percent,” Letellier said. “Southwest is about the only one that doesn’t have any growth plans, and they’re way behind in new aircraft deliveries, so they’re trying to get a better handle on their economics as well.”

So far, Sioux Falls doesn’t have any new destinations for the year, and total available seats looking out about six months are up slightly, from 2 percent to 3 percent.

Depending on the time of day, the airport is limited in how many more planes it can bring in, Letellier said. Many airlines like to leave early in the morning, which requires the aircraft to stay overnight, and the airport’s gates are full.

“It’s one of the main drivers of why we’re trying to develop and construct a new concourse and additional gates,” he said.

A plan that would expand the concourse by four or five gates is finalizing construction documents and moving ahead with design. Bid packages for construction can’t move forward until there’s clarity around federal funding, which might not be known until March.

“We know what we’re hoping to get for our financing package, but until we know we’re going to get a grant, we don’t want to get too far down the road,” Letellier said.

In its first months of operation, the new parking ramp has “done really well,” he added. “Just before Christmas, we completely filled the second, third and fourth levels.”

Even in January, which typically is slower, the ramp “has been full or very near full just about every day,” he said. “The revenue from the garage has been great so far.”