The Airport That Feeds the Oil Boom

Oil Bonanza Has Brought Jobs, Wealth and Packed Planes to Western North Dakota

A double-wide mobile-home trailer that used to serve as an elementary-school classroom is now the airport terminal. A conference room is the Hertz rental counter. And there is no baggage carousel, just a small counter where baggage workers pile luggage.

Sloulin Field International Airport here wasn’t built to be one of the fastest-growing airports in the world, but it is now. Traffic last year was 254% higher than just two years earlier. Airlines fly in with jets weighing twice as much as what the runway was built for. And when the parking lot is full, cars are left in ditches and on the sides of roads.

"It’s hard to even call it an airport," said Kenneth Dransfield of White Springs, Fla. "And it’s super expensive." He bought a ticket home to Florida seven months in advance and paid $1,200.

Scott McCartney

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