One thing that North Dakota is blessed with are numerous airports that either get you where you need to go or connect you to flights that will get you to your destination.
There are nine “major” airports in the state with all nine of them having direct flights to at least one major hub city in the United States.
As I was thinking about writing this article, I wondered if it is possible to get a flight from Minot to Pretoria, South Africa as an example. Indeed, you can get connecting flights that would most likely take you to Atlanta, Newark or JFK in New York to Johannesburg and then on to Pretoria. It would most likely cost a small fortune, but you could get there.
Many years ago, I got on a flight at Hector Field in Fargo with the destination Brisbane, Australia. It took 24 hours to get there, but it went like this, Fargo to Denver to Los Angeles to Sydney with a connecting flight to Brisbane.
Of the nine airports; Bismarck Municipal, Devils Lake Municipal, Dickinson Regional, Western Edge Aviation, Grand Forks Regional, Hector International, Minot International and Sloulin International in Williston, Hector Field offers the most direct flights to major U.S. hubs.
Fargo to Minneapolis on Delta, Denver and Chicago on United Express, Dallas with American Eagle and Allegiant to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Orlando and Phoenix.
Bismarck offers direct flights to Minneapolis on Delta, Denver on United or Frontier, American Airlines to Chicago or Dallas and Allegiant will take you to Las Vegas, Phoenix or Orlando.
From Minot there are direct routes to Minneapolis on Delta, Denver on United and Las Vegas or Phoenix on Allegiant.
The smaller of these nine airports are interesting too, especially Williston, which has direct flights to Minneapolis on Delta and Denver on United.
Jamestown has direct flights to Denver, Grand Forks serves Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Orlando, Western Edge is a fixed base operator, Dickinson has daily flights to Denver and Devils Lake offers direct flights to Denver.
And anyone who travels knows, Denver, Minneapolis, Dallas and Los Angeles are major hubs that can get you anywhere in the world.
But there used to be other flights that have been discontinued, one would guess, because of lack of passengers.
We used to have direct flights from Bismarck to Tampa, Minot to Saskatoon, Fargo to Winnipeg, Fargo to Kansas City and Bismarck to Salt Lake City.
You can still get to those destinations, but getting there might take you on an unusual trip. For instance Fargo to Winnipeg is 225 miles, yet on a flight, you would first fly to Minneapolis, then on to Winnipeg. Bismarck to Salt Lake City would be easier; Bismarck-Denver-Salt Lake City.
Think about this for a moment. There are two airports listed as international so wouldn’t it be interesting to have actual international flights out of Minot or Fargo. Toronto, Calgary, Reykjavik, Amsterdam, Oslo or even London would make it much easier for fliers.
Reykjavik is a major western European hub, Amsterdam and London are major world hubs, Calgary and Toronto connect to various trans Atlantic and trans Pacific routes and Oslo just because of all the Norwegian heritage in North Dakota.
That may or may not happen, but for now if you want to get away for awhile; see a Broncos game in Denver, go shopping in Chicago or take in a Broadway show in New York, you can get there.
