Located in Utah County and just 50 miles south of Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Provo Airport (PVU) is Utah’s second busiest airport and one of the fastest growing regional airports in the U.S.
In 2022, Provo City worked with Layton Construction – an EDCUtah Builder’s Circle Investor – to complete a significant expansion of Provo Airport, opening a 70,000 sq. ft. terminal with four gates. Jeff Palmer, executive vice president at Layton Construction said of the project, “We were brought on early in design to manage costs, accelerate the schedule and ultimately construct this exciting project for Provo. Few projects are as rewarding as this airport due to the immense impact it has had on the entire County.”
Now, Provo Airport and Layton Construction are scheduled to begin work to expand the facility to ten gates later this year – a reflection of and a further accelerant to the area’s ongoing industry growth. We caught up with PVU airport director Brian Torgersen to learn more about how the airport supports local residents, Utah businesses, and Provo City’s strategy for the future.
Well, first of all, Provo Airport offers commercial service. We have direct flights to 16 destinations, including San Francisco, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Washington DC, and Orlando. We like to say that with one connection, you can fly anywhere in the world from Provo.
American Airlines, through its partnership with SkyWest Airlines, is flying 65-passenger planes. Allegiant Air is flying 186-passenger planes, and Breeze is flying 123-passenger planes. Given the length of our runways, 85 percent of the planes that make up the entire U.S. commercial fleet could operate here, so there’s room for expansion in the future for all but the biggest wide-body aircraft.
From a passenger perspective, Provo Airport is also highly convenient and stress-free. Long-term parking is located less than 100 yards from the terminal, making for a short walk to ticketing, security screening, and baggage. All four gates are spacious and accommodating. One frequent business traveler told me that, with carry-on luggage, “seatbelt off to seatbelt on” is just eight minutes. That means when he lands, he’s off the plane and in his car in eight minutes!
In 2021, we had 77, 217 annual passenger enplanements – essentially passenger boardings. Several years ago, a study projected that we would reach 400,000 annual enplanements – or passenger boardings – by 2035. In 2022, we hit 211,741 enplanements. In 2024, we rose to 448,972. That’s a decade ahead of schedule, and the pace at which we’re growing is a driving factor in the plans to expand to ten gates.
There are 3,300 commercial airports in the country. We ranked no. 9 in the U.S. for passenger growth last year. When you look at airports with more than 100,000 annual enplanements, we were no. 2 in rate of growth, second only to Guam International which is still recovering to pre-pandemic passenger numbers. Our 481 percent growth rate since 2021 tops in the nation in pure commercial passenger growth.
Provo City Mayor Michelle Kaufusi speaks of the four “Provo pillars” – the city is Welcoming, Safe and Sound, Economically Vibrant, and Forward-Looking. The airport has a role in each of those pillars. Our space here is clean, well-organized, and secure. Our staff are friendly, and travelers feel welcome and safe here. The airport is a gateway to the world for our business community, so it contributes to economic vibrancy. And our ongoing planning process is certainly forward-looking.
As part of that planning process, we convene a meeting with local businesses several times a year. It’s our focus group to keep tabs on the business market and better serve our business’s travel needs.
We also keep tabs on our overall economic impact. In July 2022, the airport’s operations had direct, indirect, and induced economic benefits to Provo and Utah County of $131 million. That included tax revenues of $2.2 million. In November 2024, those figures rose to $209 million and $2.9 million. Airports like ours are economic drivers. It’s one of the reasons that Utah County has allocated $78 million in funding over the next 15 years to complete future expansion. We want to be, in the mayor’s words, “infrastructure ready” for the 2034 Winter Olympics and beyond.
UVU has two main operations at the airport. The University has a flight school with approximately 120 students in flight training. This is helping fill the pipeline for commercial and general aviation pilots.
The university also administers the Utah Fire Rescue Academy at the airport. It offers a wide range of training classes to firefighters statewide. These are other examples of us being forward-looking and infrastructure ready.
We attend several industry meetings a year, which are essentially speed dates with the airlines. On the business side, we pitch that Provo City is at the heart of Silicon Slopes and ranked 15 out of 403 U.S. metro areas in the Milken Institute’s 2025 Best Performing Cities report. We promote the amount of passenger traffic generated by local businesses, our two local universities, and other huge travel generators like the Missionary Training Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On the leisure side, we’re a half-hour drive to Sundance Mountain Resort and an hour to Snowbird or Deer Valley’s new East Village. We’re a three-hour drive to Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef National Parks. And we have a lot of residents who love to travel to Disneyland and Disney World.
The gate expansion will allow us to add carriers and routes. The airlines see the growth in the Provo-Orem Metropolitan Service Area, as well as Juab and Wasatch Counties. They see our potential for international travel. And they know the fees we charge the airlines are lower than those charged at Salt Lake City International Airport.
With that said, we’re not a competitive threat to SLC, nor are we planning to be. We’ll never be that big. We see ourselves as complementary to SLC – similar to the way, say, Long Beach Airport (LGB) complements Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). For a segment of the Utah market, we can be a convenient alternative to SLC.
Total acreage: 869
Two runways: 8,603-ft and 6,628-ft
Commercial carriers: Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Breeze
Gates: Four terminal-based gates and one temporary tarmac-based gate
Parking spaces and rates: 2,000 spaces, $12 per day
Car rental companies: Budget, Hertz, A to B
Utah Transit Authority bus service: Bus Route 833 hourly starting at 7:42 am until 6:44 pm
Direct destinations:
Website: https://airport.provo.gov/
“The Prosperity Post” highlights examples of the impact of your investment and EDCUtah’s work in communities across the state. Do you have a story you’d like us to share? Email connect@edcutah.org.
©2023 EDCUtah. All rights reserved.
