Commercial passenger traffic at Friedman Memorial Airport in 2010 showed a modest recovery from the previous year, but remained far less than what it was when the economy was robust, according to the latest annual report of the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority, the airport's governing body.
A total of 54,319 people boarded commercial flights in Hailey last year, up 6 percent from 2009. The increase was a major victory, coming on the heels of a 23 percent drop in 2009.
August was the busiest month at Friedman last year, with 9,399 people boarding planes, followed by July, September and March. July and August, which are typically two of the busiest months at Friedman, saw a total of 17,043 passengers, up 29 percent from the same months in 2009, and slightly below the 17,186 in 2008.
The three slowest months of 2010 were November, May and December, with a total of 6,841 passengers for the period.
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SkyWest Airlines continued to be the dominant commercial carrier at the airport in 2010, when 38,451 people boarded its planes, a 3 percent decrease from 2009. Horizon Air carried 15,868 passengers, a 38 percent improvement over the previous year. Horizon's astounding improvement was primarily due to a significant jump in summer business and a strong winter in early 2010.
SkyWest continued to operate numerous daily flights into the Hailey airport from Salt Lake City and was the only carrier to operate throughout 2010. Horizon's seasonal service from the West Coast into Sun Valley meant that during three months—April, October and November—it had no local operations at all.
