Rapid City Regional Airport sets a new record

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KELO) --Rapid City's Regional Airport set a new record for passengers in the first six months of 2024.

New flights, larger passenger planes and the Black Hills have helped the airport increase its traffic flow.

"I think we're really seeing a lot of pent up travel demand, you know, from our local customers that are coming in. We really do see people locally who want to fly out and go somewhere else. We've been able to add flights and add more options in," Executive Director Patrick Dame said.

Some of the new destinations include direct flights to Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Orlando.

Rapid City Regional Airport saw nearly 30,000 more passenger enplanements come through in 2024 as compared to 2023, which was about a 20% from the previous year.

Beth Ferrell and her husband took advantage of the direct flights from Charlotte, North Carolina and saved a lot of time.

"Oh it's wonderful because otherwise like going home, we have to go through Dallas, then Charlotte and then to our home airport, so it's three stops. Actually we enjoyed that it was a smaller airpor...