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Durango-La Plata County Airport continues to grow year after year with some of its steepest growth between 2023 and 2025. (Durango Herald file)\n<\/p>\nDurango-La Plata County Airport continues to grow year after year with some of its steepest growth between 2023 and 2025. (Durango Herald file)\n<\/p>\n
The Durango-La Plata County Airport had record-breaking passenger numbers in August, sealing the deal for an overall record-breaking summer.<\/p>\n
The airport saw 57,268 passengers pass through, up 3% from August 2025, said the airport\u2019s aviation director, Tony Vicari.<\/p>\n
Year-to-date, the airport\u2019s passenger numbers are up 10% compared with 2025, he said. August was the 32nd consecutive month that saw an individual monthly high \u2013 August was the busiest August of all time, July was the busiest July and so on. Since 2023, the airport has seen continual growth, Vicari said.<\/p>\n
While the airport is still falling in line with its 32-month trend, this year is trending toward a lower year-over-year growth compared with 2025, but still growth nonetheless, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJuly and August were slightly lower year-over-year growth rates than what we\u2019ve been seeing over the last several years \u2013 still representing all-time highs in traffic,\u201d Vicari said.<\/p>\n
Heading into the fall and next year, the airport will be able to examine whether the lower growth rates are indicative of an overall slowdown, but \u201cfor now, it\u2019s just a two-month snapshot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Summer 2026 saw a 7% increase in passengers compared with last summer, he said. July and August both experienced slower growth, sitting around 3%, but June saw a 15% increase in passengers compared with the prior June.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat represented the busiest summer core period we\u2019ve seen in the history of the airport,\u201d Vicari said. \u201cA lot of that growth was driven by June when we saw record-smashing traffic that was up 15% over last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The airport has seen double-digit percentage growth in 2023, 2024, 2024 and as it sits right now, 2025, Vicari said.<\/p>\n
While year-to-date data shows airport passengers up 10% from 2025, Vicari said that percentage will likely decrease as the year wraps up and travel slows down in the coming months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will probably be the first year since 2022 where we\u2019ve seen a non-double-digit growth period. That\u2019s not to reflect on any sort of major challenge or issue, but rather just that we\u2019re seeing that growth trajectory start to potentially drop slightly off the kind of historic levels we saw from (2023) through (2025),\u201d Vicari said.<\/p>\n
The airport is still in a \u201chealthy place,\u201d he said. While the year-over-year growth isn\u2019t as stark as in previous years, the airport is still on track to break the all-time passenger record set last year. The growth just isn\u2019t as aggressive as in the past and it\u2019s likely indicative of a stabilization.<\/p>\n
Passenger demographics have also stabilized in recent years, Vicari said. Right after the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, the airport saw an influx of visitation, or passengers traveling from outside the region. This year through the end of August, about 50% of the airport\u2019s traffic has been visitation, 40% was full-time residents from the Four Corners, and the remaining 10% is split between seasonal residents and student travel.<\/p>\n
The airport saw similar percentages in 2018 and 2019 before COVID, Vicari said.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally in the last three to four years, things have kind of normalized back to what we\u2019ve traditionally seen,\u201d Vicari said. \u201cThere can be fluctuations year to year, but right now those are relatively stable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last economic impact report for the airport using 2025 data showed $340 million in annual economic impact in the region. Vicari said the airport has also decreased \u201cpassenger leakage\u201d \u2013 people flying to and from the region but using an alternate airport such as Albuquerque. People opting to fly out of DRO is the \u201cairport equivalent of buying local,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m biased looking at it from an airport perspective, but I just think it\u2019s definitely very healthy for the community to have a thriving airport with quality daily air service into multiple hubs, and an airport that\u2019s also facilitating visitation to the region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n