The Pierre Regional Airport is making the best of its federal subsidy with more passengers usage and competitive airfares:
“More passengers are filling our flights in and out of here over the last year … in fact, our available seats have increased by four percent, but during that same period, the share of seats filled increased from 51 percent to 59 percent, an eight percent gain,” [City Commissioner Jamie] Huizenga said.
He highlighted load factor, a metric for success and profitability in airlines, which measures the fixed costs of flight against the total number of paying passengers per flight. This load factor, Huizenga said, of close to 60 percent, is actually a good sign for an Essential Air Service community like Pierre.
…Comparing Pierre’s air fare to Sioux Falls or Rapid City’s airports also showed a positive trend – in some 87 percent of comparisons, Pierre’s airfares were either lower or within 7$5 [sic] each way of other airports, Huizenga said [Iain Woessner, “Pierre Regional Airport Sees Increased Demand,” Pierre Capital Journal, 2026.10.01].
I’m not sure what “7$5” translates to, but my Expedia check this morning must be in the 13% of non-competitive rates: I find flying to MSP from PIR priced much higher than from FSD or RAP.
But at less than 60% capacity, it sounds like there’s still plenty of room for Senator Mike Rounds to book his capital-to-capital travel. So come on, Mike: ditch your privileged private charter flights and spend our money boosting the passenger count on those regular commercial flights to make your hometown airline bookings even healthier.
Yay socialism!