The Jackson Hole Airport has announced a nearly three month closure for runway construction in Spring 2022. This will impact an estimated 80,000 airline passengers and 90,000 aircraft movements. The closest alternate commercial airport is IDA, 2 hours away.

https://228k3g4ee2bb2v3oe82te2b2-wpengi ... 6.2020.pdf

This is a pretty substantial closing and will be devastating to the tourism industry there. Wonder if there would be a thought to temporarily open up some flights by commercial, express airlines at DIJ from a temporary terminal or something maybe? To provide something at least a little closer than IDA. The demand would surely be there. DIJ has a long enough runway to handle regional jets and maybe even an A319.

I think the town of Jackson will do ok there's enough airports close(ish). Plus alot of the volume for jac still flies into SLC and DEN and it's a stop on a much larger western roadtrip so all that traffic will be there. I'd say this will be harder for all the second home private plane people who rely on that airport for quick in and outs more than tourists.

Delta already flies to to West Yellowstone airport. Good alternative for people headed to Yellowstone. I could see united adding Skywest to that airport while JAC is closed.

Too bad they couldn't do it this summer instead!

slcdeltarumd11 wrote:

I think the town of Jackson will do ok there's enough airports close(ish). Plus alot of the volume for jac still flies into SLC and DEN and it's a stop on a much larger western roadtrip so all that traffic will be there. I'd say this will be harder for all the second home private plane people who rely on that airport for quick in and outs more than tourists.

Delta already flies to to West Yellowstone airport. Good alternative for people headed to Yellowstone. I could see united adding Skywest to that airport while JAC is closed.

Too bad they couldn't do it this summer instead!

I knew some people who were out there this summer and said it was packed. Huge COVID tourism destination these days it seemed. I guess their traffic is lowest between April and June though.

The release doesn't give exact dates. This could be just late April to early June? That is the shoulder season. Ski season is over, but summer tourism hasn't picked up yet. Probably the best scenario for them.

slcdeltarumd11 wrote:

I think the town of Jackson will do ok there's enough airports close(ish). Plus alot of the volume for jac still flies into SLC and DEN and it's a stop on a much larger western roadtrip so all that traffic will be there. I'd say this will be harder for all the second home private plane people who rely on that airport for quick in and outs more than tourists.

Delta already flies to to West Yellowstone airport. Good alternative for people headed to Yellowstone. I could see united adding Skywest to that airport while JAC is closed.

Too bad they couldn't do it this summer instead!

I was under the impression West Yellowstone was SkyWest at risk? Not that it really changes the point, but I don’t think it’s a CPA route for Delta.

gdavis003 wrote:

This is a pretty substantial closing and will be devastating to the tourism industry there. Wonder if there would be a thought to temporarily open up some flights by commercial, express airlines at DIJ from a temporary terminal or something maybe? To provide something at least a little closer than IDA. The demand would surely be there. DIJ has a long enough runway to handle regional jets and maybe even an A319.

April to June is the shoulder/mud season. Better than Summer or Winter.

gdavis003 wrote:

slcdeltarumd11 wrote:

I think the town of Jackson will do ok there's enough airports close(ish). Plus alot of the volume for jac still flies into SLC and DEN and it's a stop on a much larger western roadtrip so all that traffic will be there. I'd say this will be harder for all the second home private plane people who rely on that airport for quick in and outs more than tourists.

Delta already flies to to West Yellowstone airport. Good alternative for people headed to Yellowstone. I could see united adding Skywest to that airport while JAC is closed.

Too bad they couldn't do it this summer instead!

I knew some people who were out there this summer and said it was packed. Huge COVID tourism destination these days it seemed. I guess their traffic is lowest between April and June though.

It was a HUGE destination this corona season. National parks in general definitely were. There was an article that SLC and DEN saw some of the lowest decreases in the country because of this demand. People fly into DEN or SLC and do lots of circle routes. But most dont fly into JAC thats very small numbers for the town and area. The town will do fine with the closure thats the quiet time anyway in mud season between ski season and summer. The RV and van life boom it seems like almost everyone visits jackson not in winter so i think there will still be plenty of demand. JAC is the new iceland overly crowded, a few less people in the quietest time of year wont be the worst thing.

Is it possible to indicate it is about an airporr in the title? Because I read the title and I thought it is about Japan Air Commuter, an airlines which's also in the news recently

There’s going to be a cargo impact as well. I wonder if UPS Next Day Air/FedEx Overnight will even be possible during the closure.

DLASFlyer wrote:

There’s going to be a cargo impact as well. I wonder if UPS Next Day Air/FedEx Overnight will even be possible during the closure.

I wonder if maybe the cargo ops shift to DIJ. More than likely has suitable facilities for something very temporary but no clue. Just a Beechcraft 1900 or two per day from SLC

The airport restaurant badly needs the expansion that is planned.
The drive from IDA goes through some fairly high mountains, and I would not like to attempt it in the rain.

I feel so old...! I flew into Jackson Hole in 1955. Dirt or gravel strip, DC3s were the biggest thing going in, and the “terminal” was a log cabin with a counter, few chairs, a desk, and a lady behind the counter who served double-duty for the airline (Western) and the car rental.

slcdeltarumd11 wrote:

gdavis003 wrote:

slcdeltarumd11 wrote:

I think the town of Jackson will do ok there's enough airports close(ish). Plus alot of the volume for jac still flies into SLC and DEN and it's a stop on a much larger western roadtrip so all that traffic will be there. I'd say this will be harder for all the second home private plane people who rely on that airport for quick in and outs more than tourists.

Delta already flies to to West Yellowstone airport. Good alternative for people headed to Yellowstone. I could see united adding Skywest to that airport while JAC is closed.

Too bad they couldn't do it this summer instead!

I knew some people who were out there this summer and said it was packed. Huge COVID tourism destination these days it seemed. I guess their traffic is lowest between April and June though.

It was a HUGE destination this corona season. National parks in general definitely were. There was an article that SLC and DEN saw some of the lowest decreases in the country because of this demand. People fly into DEN or SLC and do lots of circle routes. But most dont fly into JAC thats very small numbers for the town and area.

It's really a fairly small fraction of Yellowstone or Grand Teton visitors that fly into JAC. Airport reports make this clear. https://www.jacksonholeairport.com/reco ... y-reports/

Runways need major maintenance. It's not as if one could justify building a second runway for this once-a-decade event.

This is scheduled appropriately so during mud season. The ski resort is closed, in a normal year many of the roads within the national parks aren’t even plowed out and opened until mid/late May, even the locals leave town and head to warmer places before summer season.

Much ado about nothing for needed and once an every couple of decade infrastructure repair.

The wanna be billionaire cowboys that want to fly into “J-Hole” during mud season will just have to fly their private jets into IDA for a few weeks.

SFOtoORD wrote:

gdavis003 wrote:

This is a pretty substantial closing and will be devastating to the tourism industry there. Wonder if there would be a thought to temporarily open up some flights by commercial, express airlines at DIJ from a temporary terminal or something maybe? To provide something at least a little closer than IDA. The demand would surely be there. DIJ has a long enough runway to handle regional jets and maybe even an A319.

April to June is the shoulder/mud season. Better than Summer or Winter.

Those in charge have made the only decision they could, hoping that Mother Nature cooperates.

If spring can start "on schedule", the ice and snow will be gone, and work can start quickly to ensure as early a starting date as possible.

If Mother Nature is feeling vindictive, she might keep winter around until mid-June and the whole re-build might be delayed.

I would imagine, however, that the rental car fleets at the airport itself will have be moved to surrounding airports, as tourists unable to fly there will fly elsewhere and make the trek to the park.

WYS, COD, BZN, and IDA will be fine alternatives during this time. I know SLC gets a lot of Jackson Hole bound passengers that end up renting cars to drive up there since SLC can be a lot cheaper to fly into than JAC.

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

This is scheduled appropriately so during mud season. The ski resort is closed, in a normal year many of the roads within the national parks aren’t even plowed out and opened until mid/late May, even the locals leave town and head to warmer places before summer season.

Much ado about nothing for needed and once an every couple of decade infrastructure repair.

The wanna be billionaire cowboys that want to fly into “J-Hole” during mud season will just have to fly their private jets into IDA for a few weeks.

JAC enplanements by month in 2019 show the relative impact
39,580 January
37,589 February
46,236 March
13,144 April
18,979 May
48,197 June
62,672 July
64.082 August
47,781 September
25,500 October
13,072 November
26,725 December

Anecdotally a couple of years back we got remarkable air fares, an amazing room rate and a jaw-dropping hotel upgrade traveling to JAC in later June. Nearly everything in the area was open but no crowds. April, May and early June is the perfect time to shut down.

I guess if John Dutton hadn't fought so hard to keep his land we would possibly
have a new airport on the Yellowstone Ranch by now.Thus helping the situation when JAC
is down for repairs

knope2001 wrote:

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

This is scheduled appropriately so during mud season. The ski resort is closed, in a normal year many of the roads within the national parks aren’t even plowed out and opened until mid/late May, even the locals leave town and head to warmer places before summer season.

Much ado about nothing for needed and once an every couple of decade infrastructure repair.

The wanna be billionaire cowboys that want to fly into “J-Hole” during mud season will just have to fly their private jets into IDA for a few weeks.

JAC enplanements by month in 2019 show the relative impact
39,580 January
37,589 February
46,236 March
13,144 April
18,979 May
48,197 June
62,672 July
64.082 August
47,781 September
25,500 October
13,072 November
26,725 December

Anecdotally a couple of years back we got remarkable air fares, an amazing room rate and a jaw-dropping hotel upgrade traveling to JAC in later June. Nearly everything in the area was open but no crowds. April, May and early June is the perfect time to shut down.

Yup. Perhaps more to the point than mud season, it’s extremely unpredictable weather season. It can and does snow in Yellowstone into June.

Pretty incredible. I’m reminded of SeaBee construction projects in WW2 for huge airfields that took...days, not months.

RyanairGuru wrote:

slcdeltarumd11 wrote:

Delta already flies to to West Yellowstone airport. Good alternative for people headed to Yellowstone. I could see united adding Skywest to that airport while JAC is closed.
!

I was under the impression West Yellowstone was SkyWest at risk? Not that it really changes the point, but I don’t think it’s a CPA route for Delta.

WYS is a OO EAS city with seasonal service. PIH is about the same distance from JAC as WYS, too. These two are better alternates than BZN and COD.

Why don’t they do it Alaska style where they just close half at a time? Or use the taxiway as a runway?

90,000 movements in 3 months? That seems like a lot at JAC’s quietest time of the year. Does JAC really have 350,000 movements a year?

SFOtoORD wrote:

April to June is the shoulder/mud season. Better than Summer or Winter.

Same issue with most Northern Areas... In the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate NY, April-June is shoulder/mud/blackfly season.... Definitely no man's land between Mother's day and Father's day.

It's a shame they can't extend the runway length at the same time. Safety 2nd I suppose.

Dominion301 wrote:

90,000 movements in 3 months? That seems like a lot at JAC’s quietest time of the year. Does JAC really have 350,000 movements a year?

It's enplanements number.

Cactusjuba wrote:

It's a shame they can't extend the runway length at the same time. Safety 2nd I suppose.

Grand Teton National Park would not allow. There was a runway safety area added a few years ago but it is not to be used in runway calculations.

Regarding the exact dates of this closure, I can say that AS's new SAN-JAC service is scheduled to (seasonally?) end on Sunday, April 11. That could indicate the closure date being April 12 perhaps?

bb

[*]

SANFan wrote:

Regarding the exact dates of this closure, I can say that AS's new SAN-JAC service is scheduled to (seasonally?) end on Sunday, April 11. That could indicate the closure date being April 12 perhaps?

bb

AS dates are for the 2020-21 ski season. The closure is not until the end of the 2021-22 winter.

Toinou wrote:

Dominion301 wrote:

90,000 movements in 3 months? That seems like a lot at JAC’s quietest time of the year. Does JAC really have 350,000 movements a year?

It's enplanements number.

Not according to the OP:

This will impact an estimated 80,000 airline passengers and 90,000 aircraft movements.

Perhaps the OP put one too many zeros on the aircraft movements total? 9,000 in 3 months would make a lot more sense.

Dominion301 wrote:

Toinou wrote:

Dominion301 wrote:

90,000 movements in 3 months? That seems like a lot at JAC’s quietest time of the year. Does JAC really have 350,000 movements a year?

It's enplanements number.

Not according to the OP:

This will impact an estimated 80,000 airline passengers and 90,000 aircraft movements.

Perhaps the OP put one too many zeros on the aircraft movements total? 9,000 in 3 months would make a lot more sense.

I screwed up. One number is boardings and the other is departing passengers from the same period 2019.

I remember using a parallel taxiway as a runway at rsw, oak... too bad that couldn’t happen at jac

FiscAutTecGarte wrote:

SFOtoORD wrote:

April to June is the shoulder/mud season. Better than Summer or Winter.

Same issue with most Northern Areas... In the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate NY, April-June is shoulder/mud/blackfly season.... Definitely no man's land between Mother's day and Father's day.

We are in a shoulder season right now at JAC and still getting the following flights daily:

2x A320 (DEN)
6x A319 (SLC, DFW, ORD)
1x E75 (SLC)

That’s over 1,000 seats a day for a town of 10,000. I wonder if UA and DL will send larger aircraft and/or more frequencies to IDA during the closure. AA probably won’t as they do not serve any nearby airports.

Redbellyguppy wrote:

I remember using a parallel taxiway as a runway at rsw, oak... too bad that couldn’t happen at jac

I think the problem is there is not much separation between the only main taxiway and the ramp and JAC. I also wouldn't be shocked if they are also doing repaving of the taxiways/ramps while they are at it. Just get it all done in parallel.

DLASFlyer wrote:

SANFan wrote:

Regarding the exact dates of this closure, I can say that AS's new SAN-JAC service is scheduled to (seasonally?) end on Sunday, April 11. That could indicate the closure date being April 12 perhaps?
bb

AS dates are for the 2020-21 ski season. The closure is not until the end of the 2021-22 winter.

Ooooops! Sorry for not paying attention to the details.

Never mind...

bb

Cactusjuba wrote:

It's a shame they can't extend the runway length at the same time. Safety 2nd I suppose.

Agreed!!!!!!!! And this is coming from someone who once volunteered to be bumped off a UAL A320 that couldn't make weight at that airport.

NYC-air wrote:

Cactusjuba wrote:

It's a shame they can't extend the runway length at the same time. Safety 2nd I suppose.

Agreed!!!!!!!! And this is coming from someone who once volunteered to be bumped off a UAL A320 that couldn't make weight at that airport.

Well, as the airport is officially inside a NATIONAL PARK, there's jusssssssssst a bit more bureaucratic red tape to cut through to do any additions/improvements vs. upkeep/renovations.

RIW and RKS are also not terrible drives.

HNLSLCPDX wrote:

WYS, COD, BZN, and IDA will be fine alternatives during this time. I know SLC gets a lot of Jackson Hole bound passengers that end up renting cars to drive up there since SLC can be a lot cheaper to fly into than JAC.

We chose COD over the alternatives (JAC, WYS, BZN, BIL) for a camping trip to Yellowstone in August 2019. We were very pleased with our choice and the friendly and helpful service provided by OO staff at COD. Our alternative choice would have been BIL because it was part of our trip anyway and offered at least a few mainline flights, but sked didn't work for us. Icing on the cake: car rental from COD was significantly cheaper than any of the surrounding airports.

BZN is fairly close. That would be my alternate.

DLASFlyer wrote:

FiscAutTecGarte wrote:

SFOtoORD wrote:

April to June is the shoulder/mud season. Better than Summer or Winter.

Same issue with most Northern Areas... In the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate NY, April-June is shoulder/mud/blackfly season.... Definitely no man's land between Mother's day and Father's day.

We are in a shoulder season right now at JAC and still getting the following flights daily:

2x A320 (DEN)
6x A319 (SLC, DFW, ORD)
1x E75 (SLC)

That’s over 1,000 seats a day for a town of 10,000. I wonder if UA and DL will send larger aircraft and/or more frequencies to IDA during the closure. AA probably won’t as they do not serve any nearby airports.

Yeah, well gosh, you probably know that it is like Aspen. Just another small town, right? Maybe it doesn't look like a major city, but the amount of money there makes it a major destination.

The closure dates have been announced as April 11, 2022 - June 27, 2022. During that time, a larger security checkpoint and hold room will be added. The goal is for JAC to be able to handle up to 12 A320 sized aircraft in 90 minutes.

That time of year there are alternative airports. The biggest impact will be on hotels and restaurants. It's a very slow time for jackson "mud" season as they call it at all the ski areas but most of those passengers and flights are taking advantage of good deals. The actual impact to locals and cargo wont be that bad. Best time to have the airport closed. BZN I bet will become the alternative if airlines upgauage. Not a bad drive in spring weather and has N/S to all the places jackson has at that time and more.

Sure enough Delta has pulled its JAC flights for April-June 2022 and up-gauged IDA. Going mainline with A319s for the first time in years.

The planners missed out - should have done it April - June 2020.

Aaron747 wrote:

The planners missed out - should have done it April - June 2020.

If they did, I think they would have been less a “planner” and more clairvoyant.

codc10 wrote:

Aaron747 wrote:

The planners missed out - should have done it April - June 2020.

If they did, I think they would have been less a “planner” and more clairvoyant.

Not to mention the project wasn't fully greenlit until the end of 2019 so to have a timetable published for 2020 would have required a lot of hoops being jumped through.

April to June is probably the best possible time to do it.

Only risk is late spring winter weather that could delay the start, but that's absolutely the lowest traffic period. If they can jam on it, rock the project, then summer tourism traffic can be retained and they'll be set for winter peak.

That's a tough thing though, oof. Gotta be done though.

slider wrote:

April to June is probably the best possible time to do it.

Only risk is late spring winter weather that could delay the start, but that's absolutely the lowest traffic period. If they can jam on it, rock the project, then summer tourism traffic can be retained and they'll be set for winter peak.

That's a tough thing though, oof. Gotta be done though.

Is winter or summer peak in JAC?

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

slider wrote:

April to June is probably the best possible time to do it.

Only risk is late spring winter weather that could delay the start, but that's absolutely the lowest traffic period. If they can jam on it, rock the project, then summer tourism traffic can be retained and they'll be set for winter peak.

That's a tough thing though, oof. Gotta be done though.

Is winter or summer peak in JAC?

Technically summer sees more operations but in my opinion winter sees longer stays.