KELO-TV gets two people to say business seems slow at the Sioux Falls airport:
Just four days before Christmas, many might expect the airport to be bustling with lots of people. But where there should be crowds at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport, there’s empty space.
“No, not a crowd, which is a bit worrying because it’s Christmas,” said Ivy Darko, who is flying to Alaska. “So, you expect more people than I’m seeing right now.”
The Lovriens are traveling to Costa Rica, so they got to the airport extra early.
“We were sitting there for a long time, maybe 20 minutes, because we were flying internationally,” said Cara Lovrien. “So, we thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we better get there.’ And we waited in line with no one else around for about 30 minutes” [Sydney Hoier, “Sioux Falls Airport Less Busy Than Usual, Travelers Say,” KELO-TV, updated 2025.12.22].
This report is ridiculous. Neither of these anecdotes indicates any rigorous comparison to actual observations from previous holiday travel seasons. The report doesn’t make clear whether Darko’s expectations are based on regular travel through FSD or just general anticipation of holiday madness. Even Lovrien, who later in the report mentions often flying around the holidays, doesn’t make clear that the wait time or having “no one else around” differed significantly from past travel experiences. (Plus, what line was there to wait in for 30 minutes if no one else was around?)
It’s entirely possible that Sioux Falls‘s and South Dakota‘s summer tourism slump is continuing, but we can’t tell from two interviews at the Sioux Falls airport. Nationwide, Thanksgiving air travel set records. AAA predicts Christmas/New Year’s air travel will be up 2.3% over last year.