Strong Holiday Tourism Projected as Glacier Park Airport Expands Winter Service
United Airlines added several seasonal direct flights to Kalispell to accommodate winter tourism as Whitefish Mountain Resort staff prepares for big crowds through the New Year
By Maggie Dresser
As hotel bookings continue to outpace last year’s occupancy numbers and Glacier Park International Airport (GPIA) expands service during peak winter months, local tourism experts forecast another busy holiday week in the Flathead Valley this year.
Explore Whitefish Executive Director Zak Anderson said that while November is a historically quiet tourism month, the occupancy of 29% was slightly higher than last year and trends indicate strong bookings for the coming winter months as Whitefish Mountain Resort (WMR) remains a popular ski destination.
While economic uncertainty has dominated trends surrounding tourism and spending in the past year, a Dec. 23 Commerce Department report revealed the strongest quarterly growth in two years. The government shutdown-delayed report showed the gross domestic product rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted 4.3% annual rate for the July through September quarter.
Following growth trends, United Airlines recently expanded winter service at GPIA from Dec. 18 through April 5 with additional direct flights from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago O’Hare and Denver.
San Francisco will have daily service during the holidays and five flights per week from early January through April 5. Seasonal weekend service from Los Angeles began on Dec. 19 and will run through April 5, with evening arrivals into Kalispell on Fridays and Saturdays and return flights on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Chicago O’Hare offers daily flights from Dec. 18 through Jan. 5 and beginning Feb. 12 offers five flights per week through the end of ski season. Denver will have three daily flights during the peak holiday period from Dec. 18 through Jan. 5 and twice-daily service through early April.
“Getting new winter flights to our area in the midst of the economic uncertainty is a testament to the strong residential growth and visitor interest of our area,” Anderson said.
As snow stacks up at WMR, bringing the settled base to 52 inches and 101 inches to date this season, Anderson suspects Big Mountain could be extra popular this year as low tide ski conditions exist across the West.
Alta Ski Area in Utah, for example, has a snow depth of 29 inches as of Dec. 23 compared to its typical depth hovering around 100 inches by the end of December. During the 2022-2023 winter, Alta had a snow depth of 163 inches during the same month.
Mount Bachelor in Bend, Ore. delayed its opening day to Dec. 23 due to a thin snowpack, which is only 18 inches. Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, too, has an 18-inch snow depth.
“We’ve been trying to get the word out that we are in a pretty good position in terms of snowfall and open terrain,” WMR spokesperson Chad Sokol said. “Unfortunately, a lot of places are struggling with early season snow, but we are pretty fortunate. We just crossed the 100-inch snow mark yesterday and we’ve got more than 100 trails open. We are in a pretty strong position.”
WMR traffic historically peaks during the holidays, and Sokol said this year is no different with the ski area “booked up solid.”
Last season, the holiday week brought a record 62,400 visitors to WMR from Christmas Day through New Year’s Day, a dramatic increase from the previous holiday week high of 54,300 visits during the 2022-2023 season. Peak daily visitation last season was 9,500 people on Dec. 30.
Sokol noted that most of those skier visits were from passholders and a visit is counted when a lift ticket, frequent skier or season pass is scanned for the first time on a given day.
“It’s definitely an all-hands-on deck time for us,” Sokol said.
Upcoming holiday events include a Christmas Eve Santa’s Gift Giveaway and torchlight parade followed by a Cruise the Blues Scavenger Hunt on Dec. 27 and a New Year’s Eve torchlight parade and fireworks show.
Blacktail Mountain Ski Area near Lakeside announced the 1,000-acre ski hill will open on Christmas Eve with limited terrain and hours.
A destructive windstorm last week delayed the ski area’s opening timeline, according to mountain managers, which caused a multi-day power outage at Blacktail.
Operating hours on Christmas Eve will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. followed by a late start of 11 a.m. on Christmas Day until 4 p.m. During the remainder of the holiday schedule through Sunday, Jan. 4, lifts will spin from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Blacktail’s regular operating hours are from Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
As ski area staff and business owners in northwest Montana brace for the busy holiday week, a record 122 million Americans nationwide are expected to travel at least 50 miles from home from Dec. 20 through Jan. 1, according to a AAA forecast.
Booking data reveals total traveler numbers are up 2% from last year and 89% will travel by car. A record 8 million people are projected to fly, despite the 7% increase in domestic flight price and an average ticket price of $900.
In November, GPIA saw a 4.8% growth in air travel with 26,391 boardings compared to 25,185 during the same month in 2024. There were 30,345 boardings in December 2024, according to Montana Department of Transportation data.