(Bismarck, ND) The North Dakota Aeronautics Commission (NDAC) has released the monthly report that provides information relating to the airline passenger traffic at the eight commercial service airports within the state.

Commercial airline boarding numbers for November 2023 reached 96,897 passengers, which represents a growth of 12,898 boardings or a 15% increase from November of 2022. All eight of the commercial service airports also had higher passenger numbers than during this same period last year.

This is the second-best November on record for airline passenger boardings in North Dakota. The current record month of November is from the oil boom era year of 2014 when the state experienced 102,517 boardings.

The mild winter weather has helped to ensure an extremely low rate of flight cancellations throughout North Dakota and the aircraft load factor (percentage of available seats that are filled with passengers) continues to remain healthy at an average 84%.

"A statewide airline passenger growth of 15% from last November is outstanding." stated Kyle Wanner, Executive Director of the NDAC. "Our airports have successfully accommodated the record level of air travel demand that the U.S. experienced throughout the Thanksgiving weekend. We also anticipate strong demand to continue throughout the end of the year with the remaining holiday travel still remaining."

November 2023 Boarding Records:

• The Fargo Hector International Airport achieved a new monthly passenger record with 42,271 passenger boardings. The previous record for the airport for month of November was set in 2022 with 38,014 passengers.
• The Devils Lake Airport also achieved a new monthly passenger record with 749 passenger boardings. The previous record for the airport for month of November was set in 2021 with 622 passengers.

November 2023 Statewide Airline Passenger Statistics

• Total Airline Passenger Boardings: 96,897
• Available Airline Departure Seats: 115,922
• Average Aircraft Load Factor: 84%
• Number of Successful Airline Departure Flights: 1,397
• Number of Airline Departure Flight Cancellations: 1
• Airline Departure Flight Cancellation Rate: 0.1%

November Airline Boarding Report