Airport Passenger Traffic Reaches New Record

Durango, CO: Passenger traffic at the Durango-La Plata County Airport set a new annual record for the sixth consecutive year. 175,019 passengers boarded commercial airlines at the airport in 2011, a 5.7% increase from the 165,581 passengers boarding in 2010. The addition of non-stop flights to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport by American Airlines was a major contributor to the increase. Frontier, United and US Air also increased the number of seats available to accommodate the increased demand during peak periods.

Ron Dent, Director of Aviation, said that the increased traffic demonstrates that Durango is truly becoming the regional airport for the area. “The increased traffic is allowing the airport to improve the customer experience flying to and from Durango. All commercial airlines in Durango are now flying jet aircraft exclusively. Larger aircraft are not the only improvement. Security screening is being upgraded by the TSA at the airport with the latest advanced imaging technology to allow faster and more efficient screening of our passengers prior to boarding.”
“Our customers can also look forward to new self-service airline kiosks, to be installed this year, to help speed their way through the check-in process” Dent said.