With a population of just over 90,000 inhabitants, the city of Bellingham, Washington is fairly small by US standards. Despite this, its airport is busier than you might think, but not due to the wanderlust of the residents of the city it serves. Instead, passengers from neighboring Canada represent over half of its traffic.
A brief history of the airport
Bellingham International Airport (BLI), like many such facilities around the US and indeed the world as a whole, essentially began its life as a military base. While it technically opened as a commercial facility in December 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor that prompted the US to join the Second World War caused it to be offered to the US military just three days later. It then became an Air Force base.
After the conclusion of the conflict, it was able to reopen to serve its planned purpose as a civilian airport. However, its growth as a commercial facility was a slow one, and it didn't serve jetliners until Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) launched flights (via Seattle) to Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.
This occurred in 1985, and prompted other airlines serving Bellingham to fly jetliners there as well. Today, the airport has a 2,042-meter-long runway with the headings 16/34, and it sees service from four different scheduled carriers.
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More popular with Canadians
Despite its location within the US federal state of Washington, the majority of Bellingham International Airport's passengers are actually Canadian. According to USA Today, the facility is considered to be a low-cost alternative to Vancouver International Airport (YVR), with the Canadian city being just 60 miles away.
As a result of this, Bellingham International Airport estimates that 65% of its users come from Canada. The Port of Bellingham's Director of Aviation, Sunil Harman, told USA Today that "a significant number of Canadian passengers utilize our airport to take advantage of cheap parking and low-cost flights to 10 non-stop locations."
According to the Wall Street Journal, this is part of a wider trend, which has seen Canadians favor various airports just over the country's border with the US to avoid rising taxes. But where exactly can they fly to from Bellingham?
Different domestic options
A quick look at the Port of Bellingham's website shows that the airport primarily serves domestic destinations in the west of the US, with three of the country's largest carriers present. Alaska Airlines flies to Seattle, and Allegiant Air serves Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Palm Springs, Phoenix/Mesa, and San Diego.
Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines connects Bellingham with Las Vegas and Oakland on a year-round basis, with seasonal flights to Denver beginning this April. Simple Flying reviewed a flight from Bellingham to Oakland last year.
However, the fourth and final carrier with a presence at Bellingham International Airport is perhaps the most interesting of them all. San Juan Airlines has a base at the facility and flies small propeller planes from there to the San Juan Islands, serving, according to the carrier's website, five destinations in the archipelago.
What do you make of Bellingham's popularity among Canadian passengers? Have you ever used the facility yourself? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!
Sources: Port of Bellingham, San Juan Airlines, USA Today, Wall Street Journal