Boise Airport Boise Air Terminal Gowen Field | |||||||||||||||
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 1998 USGS photo | |||||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public / Military | ||||||||||||||
| Owner/Operator | City of Boise | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | Treasure Valley | ||||||||||||||
| Opened | 1936; 89 years ago (1936) | ||||||||||||||
| Focus city for | Alaska Airlines[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 2,872 ft / 875 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 43°33′52″N116°13′22″W / 43.56444°N 116.22278°W /43.56444; -116.22278 | ||||||||||||||
| Website | www | ||||||||||||||
| Maps | |||||||||||||||
 FAA Airport Diagram as of January 2021 | |||||||||||||||
 Interactive map of Boise Airport | |||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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| Helipads | |||||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2024) | |||||||||||||||
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| Sources:Federal Aviation Administration[2] City of Boise[3] | |||||||||||||||
Boise Airport (IATA:BOI,ICAO:KBOI,FAALID:BOI) (Boise Air Terminal orGowen Field)[2][4] is a joint civil-military airport in thewestern United States inIdaho, three miles (5 km) south ofdowntownBoise inAda County.[2] The airport is operated by the city of Boise Department of Aviation, overseen by an airport commission.[5] The busiest airport in the state, it serves more passengers thanall other Idaho airports combined and roughly ten times as many passengers as the next busiest airport atIdaho Falls.[citation needed]
Boise is a landing rights airfield requiring international general aviation flights to receive permission from aCustoms and Border Protection officer before landing.
In addition to being a commercial and general aviation airport, Boise also functions concurrently as aUSAF military facility as used by the124th Fighter Wing (124 FW) of theIdaho Air National Guard on theGowen Field Air National Guard Base portion of the airport. The 124 FW operates theA-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft.
TheNational Interagency Fire Center is based in the city of Boise and the Boise Airport is used for logistical support. TheUnited States Forest Service (USFS) also uses Boise Airport as a base foraerial firefighting air tankers during the wildfire season.[6]
Boise Airport enplaned 2,248,435 passengers in 2022, an increase of 24% vs. 2021 when 1,806,838 passengers were enplaned.
Boise Airport currently has one terminal with two concourses and servicing ten airlines. The terminal is a three-story building containing four baggage carousels, rental car counters on the ground floor, all of the ticketing counters, a consolidated security checkpoint includingTSA PreCheck and CLEAR Security, offices and fast food outlets.
The two concourses have a combined 24 gates with 13 total jet bridges. Concourse B has 13 gates and 11 jet bridges (with one jet bridge serving each of B21 a/b and B22 a/b). Airline gate assignments are broken down as follows: B10, B11, B21 a/b (United), B15, B17 (Southwest), B14, B16, B19 (Common Use), B18 (American), B20, B22 a/b (Delta). The Common use gates are used as follows: B14 (Delta), B16 (Allegiant, Frontier, Southwest), B19 (American, Spirit, Sun Country).[7] Concourse C serves Alaska Airlines and has 11 gates; however, only gates C8a and C12 are equipped with jet bridges, with the rest having covered walkways.
In 2016, Boise Airport released a new master plan outlining their short, medium, and long-term plans. Each of these terms would mark different stages of the airport's growth and renewal, with the largest projects being three new parking garages, upgrades to Concourse B, and a new Concourse A.[8]
The new Concourse A would sit on the other side of the main terminal from concourses B and C in an existing rental car parking lot. It would have ten new gates, all equipped with jet bridges and able to handle narrow-body aircraft.[9] Long-term plans call for one of the new gates would be equipped to handle wide bodied aircraft, five equipped for narrowbody aircraft, and four equipped for regional jets up to anA220. Phase 1 of the new concourse is scheduled to begin construction in the start of the second quarter of 2026 and will include six gates, three for mainline aircraft and three for regional aircraft.[7] The makeup of Phases 2 and 3 would depend on the needs of the airport and have not been determined yet.
Increasing passenger traffic at BOI requires the addition of parking. To this end, the airport is building three new parking garages.[8] One will be a public garage for passengers with 940 spaces. This will be built on an existing surface lot. The other two garages, an employee garage and a rental car center garage, are being relocated to make room for Concourse A. The new employee garage will have 680 spaces and the rental car garage will have 880 spaces.[7]The airport has begun construction on its first two of the three parking garages. In late January 2022, it broke ground on the construction for the new employee parking garage after several delays, and its new public parking garage expansion. Both these projects plan to be finished by the end of 2023. The airport also plans to break ground on a new 2 part rental car garage in 2024, this will make room for the new Concourse A.
Boise's first municipal airport, Booth Field, was built in 1926 on a gravel bed near the south bank of theBoise River, now the campus ofBoise State University. The first commercial airmail flight in the United States passed through this airfield on April 26, 1926, carried byVarney Airlines. Varney began operating out of Boise in 1933, later merging withNational Air Transport to becomeUnited Airlines. Since United traces its roots to Varney, United is recognized as the airline that has operated the longest out of Boise, 99 years as of 2025. Less than four months after hishistorictransatlantic flight, the airfield hostedCharles Lindbergh and theSpirit of St. Louison September 4, 1927.[10][11]
The current airport has its origins in 1936 when Boise began buying and leasing land for the airport. By 1938, Boise had the longest runway in the United States at 8,800 feet (2,680 m), built as aWorks Progress Administration (WPA) project under sponsorship of the city.[12] The steelhangar for Varney Airlines was moved to the present field in 1939. As aircraft grew the hangar was no longer big enough and was converted into a passenger terminal. It was part of the modernterminal facility until the completion of a new terminal in 2004.
DuringWorld War II, theU.S. Army Air Forces leased the field for use as a training base forB-17 Flying Fortress andB-24 Liberator bomber crews. More than six thousand men were stationed there during the war.[5]
The field was named Gowen Field in 1941 on July 23, after1st Lt Paul R. Gowen.[13] Born and raised inCaldwell, he attended theUniversity of Idaho for two years, then obtained an appointment toWest Point in 1929, and graduated ninth in his class in 1933.[13][14] While piloting a twin-engineB-10 bomber in theArmy Air Corps, Gowen was killed instantly in a crash inPanama in July 1938.[13] The right engine failed shortly after take-off fromAlbrook Field, nearPanama City. The other two crew members, navigator and radio operator, survived and crawled from the wreckage with burns.[15][16]
After the war the part of the field used by the Army Air Forces was returned to the city.[5] TheIdaho Air National Guard began leasing the airfield after the war and continues to do so.[5]
The jet age arrived in Boise during the mid-1960s. In 1966, United Airlines was operatingBoeing 727-100 jetliners into the airport with round trip routings of Boise (BOI)-Salt Lake City (SLC)-Chicago (O'Hare, ORD)-Boston (BOS) and Seattle (SEA)-Portland (PDX)-Boise (BOI)-Salt Lake City (SLC)-Denver (Stapleton, DEN)-Chicago (ORD)-New York (Newark, EWR).[17] United was also serving the airport withDouglas DC-6 andDC-6B propliners at this time.West Coast Airlines introducedDouglas DC-9-10 jet service during the late 1960s and in 1968 was operating round trip routings of Seattle (Boeing Field, BFI)-Portland (PDX)-Boise (BOI)-Salt Lake City (SLC) and Portland (PDX)-Seattle (BFI)-Boise (BOI)-Salt Lake City (SLC)with the DC-9.[18] West Coast was also serving Boise withFairchild F-27 turboprops andDouglas DC-3 prop aircraft in 1968. The same year West Coast merged withBonanza Air Lines andPacific Air Lines to form Air West which was subsequently renamedHughes Airwest which, in turn, continued to serve Boise with Douglas DC-9 (-10,-30) jets. In 1972, Hughes Airwest was operating non-stop DC-9 service from Boise to Portland and Salt Lake City and was also flying direct DC-9 service to Los Angeles (LAX), Las Vegas (LAS), Phoenix (PHX), San Diego (SAN), Burbank (BUR), Santa Ana (SNA), Spokane (GEG) and other regional destinations.[19]
By 1976, Hughes Airwest and United were still the only two airlines operating jet service into Boise according to theOfficial Airline Guide (OAG). United had also expanded its Boise service by this time and was operating nonstop flights withBoeing 727 (-100,-200) and largerDouglas DC-8 jetliners to Chicago (O'Hare), Denver (Stapleton), Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, Reno, and Spokane as well as direct, no change of plane jet service to New York (LaGuardia), Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, D.C. (National), San Diego, and Hartford, according to theOfficial Airline Guide (OAG).[20] United and Hughes Airwest were operating all of their flights into Boise with jet aircraft at this time in 1976. Also according to the OAG, in early 1985Cascade Airways was operating international service of a sorts into Boise with a direct flight once a week fromCalgary via intermediate stops inSpokane andLewiston, ID.[21]
Following the federalAirline Deregulation Act of 1978, a number of air carriers operated jet service into the airport at different times over the years from the late 1970s through the 1990s. The following list of airlines is taken from OAG editions from 1979 to 1999:[22]
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Between 2001 and 2005, Boise Airport was remodeled with a new terminal and an elevated roadway for departures, constructed in two phases. Phase 1 considered amenities such as baggage claim, lobby, and food and beverage concession, which were completed in 2003. Phase 2 dealt with security checkpoints and a new concourse (Concourse C) and the remodeling of Concourse B, which were completed in 2005.[23]
The Boise Airport Passenger Terminal designed byCSHQA is a three-story, steel-framed 378,000-square-foot (35,100 m2) state-of-the-art aviation facility. Curvilinear, steel trusses create the undulating ceiling plane of the ticket lobby and define the signature profile of the building. The terminal has garnered national attention for the beauty of its design and is considered a prototypical post-9/11 facility.[24]
The Boise Airport was fourth in passenger satisfaction in theJ.D. Power and Associates 2004 Global Airport Satisfaction Index Study.[25] Power no longer publishes a global listing, and the airport was not listed in the 2017 North American ranking.[26]
The Boise Airport was a hub forHorizon Air from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. Horizon Air was acquired by theAlaska Air Group, the parent company ofAlaska Airlines, in 1986 and begancode sharing flights for Alaska Airlines at that time. During the summer of 1990, Horizon Air was operating up to 36 departures a day from the airport to destinations in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, as well as direct one stop service to Salt Lake City.[27] By 1999, Horizon Air was operating up to 22 departures a day from Boise withFokker F28 Fellowship jets with additional flights being operated withde Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8 turboprops.[28] The regional airline also previously operatedDornier 328,Fairchild F-27, andSwearingen Metroliner propjets.[29] Boise is currently a focus city forAlaska Airlines service operated by both Horizon Air andcode sharing partnerSkyWest Airlines.[citation needed]
Boise was also one of the primary destinations served byCascade Airways which competed with Horizon Air. In 1985, Cascade was serving the airport withBritish Aircraft CorporationBAC One-Eleven jets andSwearingen Metroliner propjets with regional service in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Montana, as well as nonstop jet service to Reno, Nevada, and connecting flights to Canada at Calgary, Alberta.[30][better source needed]
Boise Airport covers 5,000 acres (7.8 sq mi; 20 km2) at anelevation of 2,872 feet (875 m) at its east end. It has tworunways and onehelipad:[2][31]
In the year ending May 31, 2023, the airport had 139,983 aircraft operations, average 383 per day: 46%general aviation, 39% airline, 9%air taxi, and 5% military. 273 aircraft were then based at this airport: 147 single-engine, 22 multi-engine, 37 jet, 17helicopter and 50 military.[2] Of the top 100 United States airports, BOI is among four airports that does not charge aPFC.[32]
The airport can handle minor maintenance and repairs throughfixed-base operators Jackson Jet Center, Turbo Air and Western Aircraft.
Law enforcement is handled by the Boise Police Department (BPD). In 2006, the Airport Division had an authorized strength of 1 lieutenant, 2 sergeants, and 28 officers, and there were five TSA certifiedK-9 units trained in explosive detection.[33]
The original layout was the primary runway (10R/28L) with two others at 6,000 feet (1,830 m),[12] both are retired but still visible as taxiways. The north–south runway (offset slightly northeast) was aligned with present-day S. Zeppelin Street (approximately with Owyhee Street to the north), and the east–west runway was offset slightly southwest. The intersection point of the two former runways was on today's main taxiway, near the terminal. The second parallel runway (10L/28R) was extended 2,300 feet (700 m) to the east in 1998.[34]
In 2008, city officials broke ground for Boise Air Terminal's new airport traffic control tower, the latest facilities improvement. The tower's height at 295 feet (90 m) made it the tallest building in the state ofIdaho until it was surpassed by theZions Bank Idaho Headquarters Building in 2013(at 323 ft (98 m)), and theNorthwest's tallest control tower.[citation needed] It was relocated to the south side of the airport in order to control an existingGuard assault strip, runway 09/27, south of Gowen Field. The tower was planned and constructed when it was believed that the radar functions would be moved toSalt Lake City inUtah. After it was decided to leave the radar positions in Boise, the facility at the base of the tower was redesigned and partially remodeled to house the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON).
The tower and TRACON opened on September 16, 2013, with updated electronics and equipment, including theSTARS radar system; improving services and safety for pilots and the flying public. With the expanded facilities and new equipment, the TRACON operates the approach control for Boise Airport, and also remotely operates the approach control for theBozeman Airport inMontana. The TRACON was then renamed Big Sky Approach to reflect the broader geographical coverage. The consolidation of Boise and Bozeman approach control facilities into Big Sky Approach is part of the FAA's continuing plan to consolidate approach control services across the nation.[citation needed] Boise's TRACON was designed with the option of adding additional radar scopes, and may offer approach control services to other airports in the future.
Gowen Field Air National Guard Base primarily refers to the military facilities on the south side of the runways, which includesAir National Guard,Army National Guard, and reserve units of theArmy,Navy, andMarine Corps. The field is home to the124th Fighter Wing (124 FW),Idaho Air National Guard, which consists of one flying squadron operationally-gained by theAir Combat Command (ACC) and 12 additional support units. The aircraft based at Gowen Field ANGB is theA-10 Thunderbolt IIclose air support attack aircraft of the190th Fighter Squadron (190 FS).
The 124 FW was previously designated as the124th Wing (124 WG), a compositeAir Combat Command (ACC) andAir Mobility Command (AMC) unit that also operatedC-130H Hercules transport aircraft in the189th Airlift Squadron (189 AS), the 189 AS being operationally-gained by AMC.
BRAC 2005 directed that theIdaho Air National Guard divest itself of the C-130 mission by 2009, transferring its C-130s to theWyoming Air National Guard, while retaining its A-10 fighter mission. This action was completed in 2009 and the 124 WG was redesignated the 124 FW at that time. The 124 FW is composed of over 1000 military personnel, consisting of just over 300 full-timeActive Guard and Reserve (AGR) andAir Reserve Technician (ART) personnel and over 700 traditional part-time Air National Guardsmen.[6][35]
In February 2011,FedEx donated a surplusBoeing 727-200 cargo jet (tail number N275FE) to the City of Boise for use as a training tool for emergencyfirst responders. The aircraft—stripped of engines—is parked near the southeastern end of Boise's third runway—a location more than a mile southeast of, and not visible from, the mainpassenger terminal. Several agencies use the plane for training purposes.[citation needed]
| Destinations map |
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  Boise Destinations from Boise Airport Red = Year-round destination Green = Seasonal destination Blue = Future destination |
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| Rank | City | Passengers | Carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seattle/Tacoma, Washington | 376,000 | Alaska, Delta |
| 2 | Denver, Colorado | 352,000 | Southwest, United |
| 3 | Phoenix–Sky Harbor, Arizona | 199,000 | Alaska, American, Southwest |
| 4 | Las Vegas, Nevada | 183,000 | Alaska, Allegiant, Southwest, Spirit |
| 5 | Salt Lake City, Utah | 171,000 | Delta |
| 6 | Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas | 132,000 | American |
| 7 | Portland, Oregon | 126,000 | Alaska |
| 8 | Minneapolis/St Paul, Minnesota | 116,000 | Delta, Sun Country |
| 9 | Los Angeles, California | 115,000 | Alaska, Delta, United |
| 10 | San Francisco, California | 114,000 | Alaska, United |
| Rank | Airline | Passengers | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SkyWest Airlines | 1,370,000 | 26.80% |
| 2 | Southwest Airlines | 1,314,000 | 25.70% |
| 3 | Delta Air Lines | 701,000 | 13.72% |
| 4 | Horizon Air | 600,000 | 11.75% |
| 5 | United Airlines | 419,000 | 8.19% |
| — | Other Airlines | 707,000 | 13.84% |
| Year | Passengers | Year | Passengers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 3,289,314 | 2016 | 3,230,878 |
| 2007 | 3,365,303 | 2017 | 3,513,377 |
| 2008 | 3,185,006 | 2018 | 3,871,891 |
| 2009 | 2,795,297 | 2019 | 4,111,151 |
| 2010 | 2,805,692 | 2020 | 1,973,198 |
| 2011 | 2,781,708 | 2021 | 3,607,283 |
| 2012 | 2,609,816 | 2022 | 4,496,529 |
| 2013 | 2,612,457 | 2023 | 4,752,757 |
| 2014 | 2,753,153 | 2024 | 4,990,885 |
| 2015 | 2,978,281 | 2025 |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
