Could Boise Airport go international? Boise eyes more than US-bound flights

The Boise Airport provides nonstop flights from eight airways to 26 locations — all of them within the contiguous U.S. But the local air hub has hopes of going worldwide.

Through the first three months of 2025, three cities in Mexico made the listing of top-30 remaining locations for Treasure Valley air vacationers, according to airport data.

At No. 20, Cancun, Mexico, topped the worldwide listing, with Puerto Vallarta at No. 28 and San José del Cabo at No. 30. All others had been home cities.

Flying to Mexico — and all other non-domestic locations — requires a layover at a bigger, worldwide airport to fly in and out of Boise. That’s because the local air hub lacks required U.S. Customs and Border Patrol amenities to course of business passengers into the U.S., Boise Airport spokesperson Shawna Samuelson told the Idaho Statesman.

As a outcome, inbound and outbound air vacationers from Boise often make stops at the airports in Seattle, Portland, Denver and a number of in California, the data confirmed.

Samuelson said the airport would love to see one of its business airways add a nonstop worldwide route to the slate of present flights. But so far they’ve discovered no takers.

“Our airline partners have not expressed the interest necessary to justify the significant investment required for a (Customs) facility,” Samuelson said. “Because these facilities must meet strict federal standards, construction is costly, and moving forward without airline demand would not be fiscally responsible.”

With a quickly growing population, that may change in the future, Samuelson told the Statesman. Close to 5 million passengers handed through the Boise Airport in 2024, and through July this 12 months, the airport is pacing at about 7% forward of that whole.

Design work for a new airport concourse, which might add up to 10 more gates, is now underway, and it’s attainable that worldwide flights might be in the combination, Samuelson said. Boise’s municipal airport enlargement and terminal enchancment project is pegged at no more than $700 million to be full by 2029.

During the planning course of, the airport is set to “explore flexible design options that would allow the new concourse to be more easily retrofitted for international service when demand grows,” Samuelson said. “We are also continually advocating for our airline partners to add international service from locations that have pre-clearance, where passengers clear Customs and Border Protection at the point of departure rather than at the point of arrival.”

Those discussions stay in the early levels, she added, “but international readiness is part of our long-term planning.”

For now, Treasure Valley air vacationers who need to fly past U.S. borders will still have to ebook their journeys with a layover before they return to or depart the nation. But that may change as the Boise Airport continues to goal making the leap to worldwide routes in the approaching years.