Transportation analysts point out that local airports also play important but less-noticed roles in other sectors of the economy. In health care, for example, airports are used for medical evacuation to metropolitan hospitals and flying in physicians for routine or emergency treatment. Airports are also used in forest management, to fight fires like those raging through Montana this year, and in agriculture, as bases for crop sprayers. One problem is that passengers vote with their feet. South Dakota's Aberdeen Regional Airport, served only by Mesaba Aviation operating as Northwest Airlink, has lost passenger traffic to Sioux Falls in recent years because fares are lower there and passengers are willing to drive the 200 miles.
Similar struggles affect airports throughout the region.
North Dakota's four major airports have experienced steady growth over the last year, said Gary Ness, director of the state aeronautics commission, but smaller airports in Williston, Jamestown, Devils Lake and Dickinson continue to struggle as passengers go elsewhere to catch their flights. They just don't show up in time, they're late. It isn't just one carrier. It's the same story everywhere. Part of the reliability problem is a severe pilot shortage nationally.