Passenger count, cancellations much improved

McCOOK, Neb. -- The number of commercial passengers flying out of McCook airport continues to increase as the airport reported its best third quarter since 2007 recently.

Boutique Air boarded 544 commercial passengers during July, August and September of this year at McCook Ben Nelson Regional Airport, according to city reports. By comparison, Great Lakes Airlines boarded 89 and 156 passengers during the same time period in 2015 and 2014, respectively.

The last time the airport had a better third quarter of the calendar year was nearly a decade ago, when 828 passengers were boarded in 2007.

Flight reliability has also seen significant improvement under Boutique Air since the airline took over the McCook air service in early June. The airline canceled five flights in August due to routine maintenance scheduling conflicts and one flight in September due to weather, according to city staff.

The six cancellations occurred during a stretch of more than 200 flights over four months. By comparison, Great Lakes Airlines scheduled only 244 of the contracted 624 McCook flights during all of 2014. The airline subsequently canceled another 41 of those flights.

Commercial passengers through September:

2016 : 993

2015 : 250

2014 : 280

2013 : 1488

2012 : 1142