Billings Airport aims to reduce airfares with new routes

The deals at Billings Logan International Airport are real. You just have to “use them smartly,” Logan Marr said recently while waiting in the airport lobby.

“Basically buying when nobody is flying,” he added. “Sometimes it kind of sucks when you don’t have the best experience. But you can get cheap flights, you just look for deals.”

As the airport’s efforts to reduce higher-than-average fares intensify, it is now trying to attract more airlines to Billings. More competition, airport officials say, would mean passengers would save money rather than have to leave.

New and expanded service has been added on several routes out of the Magic City this year, but the airport has fallen to the fourth-busiest in the state, and the small size of the market may limit opportunities for further growth.

“I have to temper expectations a little bit,” said Jeff Roach, the city’s aviation and transit director. “We serve a lot of regional hubs — like Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Minneapolis — that give us good connections.”

That connectivity has improved, at least for this summer’s seasonal routes. American Airlines has extended daily service to its Chicago hub through October, while budget carriers Allegiant and Sun Country have each added twice-weekly service to Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

Yet fares have remained stubbornly high. The latest quarterly survey from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that an average domestic trip from Billings costs $505.51, compared to nearly $388 nationally.

Standing at the baggage claim line last month, Derick Medeiros said he had bought a one-way ticket to Hawaii via Seattle for $230. He, too, tries to find bargains, but said the price of flying “has its day.”

Medeiros said he considered flying from the Bozeman airport for a cheaper price. The extra travel time didn’t seem worth it to him, but he said he knew people who would make the drive. Although Medeiros said those people had additional incentives, such as family, to cross the Bozeman Pass, the federal survey found the airport offered a cheaper average price.

In the first quarter of this year, a flight from Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport – northwest of the city – cost an average of about $439, about $65 cheaper than from Billings.

During the pandemic, airfares fell at both airports, but prices recovered at different rates afterward. Comparing first-quarter data and excluding inflation, prices in Bozeman have just returned to 2019 levels, while prices in Billings have increased slightly.

The differing trends are part of a not-so-subtle shift across the state. A decade ago, Bozeman’s airport overtook Billings in passenger numbers. Today, it offers flights as far away as Boston and New York.

Bozeman’s recreational market exploded during the pandemic, when many tourists wanted to get out into nature.

“Bozeman was one of many cities that took advantage of this, to the point that there was a shortage of rental cars,” said Brett Snyder, who runs an influential industry blog and travel agency. “They got so much service so quickly. It was pretty crazy.”

Missoula and Kalispell airports also have more passengers than Billings, although their fares are slightly higher than those from the Magic City. Unlike those western markets, Billings – Montana’s largest city and commercial center – attracts more business travelers, Roach said.

But with this year’s seasonal expansions in full swing, Billings officials see a way to gradually attract more service and thereby increase competition. Part of that is to raise the profile of Billings and Eastern Montana as a tourist destination.

“We also try to educate airlines about the tourism opportunities available here and show them that passengers are coming to Billings for tourism purposes,” Roach said.

The airport has also offered tough incentives to airlines that open new routes. For example, Billings waived landing fees for Allegiant’s new seasonal flight to Los Angeles, said Shane Ketterling, the airport’s deputy director.

And since Billings recently received a federal grant, an airline that begins a year-round service to Los Angeles or San Francisco could receive a revenue guarantee against potential losses. The competitive initiative, called the Small Community Air Service Development Program, reviews applications from smaller airports that want to offer service on certain routes.

Billings received a $1 million grant last year, but not for the first time. In the 2016 cycle, the airport secured a grant to attract flights to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, American Airlines’ largest hub. The route proved profitable and ultimately did not need the revenue guarantee, Ketterling said.

The Magic City is counting on another high-flying success with a year-round connection to California. Alaska Airlines, which has offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, supported Billings’ request for a grant – but that did not mean the airline actually committed to a new route.

Now comes the difficult part: convincing the airline of its commitment.

Ketterling said it could take until next year for airlines to offer the new service. Some carriers have scaled back expansion of their networks due to headwinds such as staffing shortages and various internal issues. However, one airline still appears willing to explore routes from Los Angeles.

“If anyone – a network airline – would take the risk, it would probably be Alaska,” Snyder told the Gazette. “And it could be the same in San Francisco. But even in San Francisco, United could consider taking the risk if something were to happen.”

Billings will continue his discussions with the airlines and has also strengthened his cooperation with the airport consulting firm Mead & Hunt. While the airport is welcoming this year’s seasonal flights, officials are boasting about another innovation: the expanded passenger hall.

The airport now has eight gates, as well as a new area for Cape Air. For airlines, this means space for more passengers, as well as airline-specific gates, Roach said. The expanded amenities have also pleased passengers, he added.

The toilets in particular offer more privacy.

“Our restrooms in particular are one of the things we hear about the most,” Roach said. “We have the best restrooms of any airport that people fly into. And those are the kinds of messages that airlines hear from our passengers – and that encourages them to look at our market.”