Yellowstone Airport

Historical airline service

Two airlines operated mainline jet aircraft into the airport, although all service was seasonal in nature and was not operated during the winter months. In the 1960s and 1970s, Western Airlines served the airport on a seasonal basis with Lockheed L-188 Electra propjets with the airline then replacing this turboprop service with Boeing 737-200 jet flights. During the summer of 1973, Western was operating four 737 flights a day into the airport with nonstop jet service to Butte, MT, Great Falls, MT, Idaho Falls, ID and Salt Lake City as well as flying direct, no change of plane jet service to Las Vegas, Ontario, CA, San Diego and San Francisco. Western was subsequently acquired by Delta Air Lines which then turned the former Western service into the airport over to regional airline affiliate Delta Connection operated by SkyWest Airlines. The original Frontier Airlines (1950-1986) served the airport as well with direct Boeing 737-200 jetliner service to Denver which was also operated on a seasonal basis. Prior to operating jet flights, Frontier served the airport with Convair 580 turboprop aircraft.

Facilities and aircraft

Yellowstone Airport covers an area of 735 acres (297 ha) at an elevation of 6,649 feet (2,027 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 01/19 with an asphalt surface measuring 8,400 by 150 feet (2,560 x 46 m).

West Yellowstone Interagency Fire Center

The federal West Yellowstone Interagency Fire Center oversees aerial fire fighting operations and is located two miles north of the Yellowstone National Park Gateway community of West Yellowstone, MT, 90 miles south of Bozeman, MT and 100 miles northeast of Idaho Falls, Idaho. The base was established in 1951 at the old airport just west of town and then moved to its present location in 1965. It is jointly operated by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the National Park Service (NPS). USFS is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture while NPS is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

During the summer the base is home to 21 smokejumpers, pilots for the jump plane and fire fighting air tanker, an office manager and an air tanker base manager. The base also supports visiting jumpers, tankers and other aerial fire fighting resources during times of high fire activity. The "jump ship" aircraft is a Dornier 228 twin turboprop aircraft configured for smokejumper operations while the air tanker aircraft is a converted Lockheed P-3 Orion four engine turboprop formerly operated by the U.S. Navy as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft. The Orion is the military version of the Lockheed L-188 Electra propjet airliner and can carry up to 3,000 gallons of fire fighting retardant.

The West Yellowstone jumpers and the air tanker are considered national resources. While attached to the Gallatin National Forest with a primary response area of the Gallatin, Shoshone, Beaverhead/Deerlodge, Targhee, Bridger/Teton and Custer National Forests as well as Yellowstone National Park and Teton National Park, they can be dispatched anywhere in the country to respond to wildfires on federal lands.

Airlines and destinations

The airport is served on a seasonal basis by SkyWest Airlines operating as Delta Connection, with Canadair CRJ-200 regional jet aircraft flying nonstop to and from the Delta hub located at Salt Lake City Airport (SLC). After serving the airport for many years with Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turboprops, SkyWest upgraded its seasonal Delta Connection service into West Yellowstone with Canadair regional jets on June 1, 2015 thus marking the first time WYS has had jet service in nearly 30 years, according to the airline.