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The Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport lobby on Feb. 3, 2021.
When air passenger numbers in Montana dropped 95 percent at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, airport managers worried about how they’d stay in business. Closures would have had lasting ripple effects in communities that depend on tourists, business travelers and fast access to medical hubs. But airports are pulling through, even as passenger numbers have not fully recovered.
This time last year, Montana’s busiest airport was breaking passenger records. Then COVID-19 infections exploded around the world; business and leisure travel to Bozeman essentially came to a standstill.
“When we got into April and May, we were barely operating in terms of passengers,” Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport Director Brian Sprenger said. “We would see about 50 passengers a day compared to what would normally be about 1500 a day departing the airport. So it was very dramatic.”
Winter returning to north-central Montana
Havre Daily News/Tim Leeds
Vehicles drive on First Street this morning through falling snow that is starting to accumulate on the ground.
Old Man Winter really hasn t been seen much in north-central Montana since November, but it appears he is back and likely will stay a while. After a rainstorm Tuesday temperatures dropped and snow was falling in the area this morning, with more in the forecast and temperatures expected to continue to drop. This is an appetizer for what we are going to get, National Weather Service meteorologist Francis Kredensor in Great Falls said this morning.