SkyWest jobs and fall flight additions broaden Shreveport Regional’s economic role as passenger traffic trails 2025
Shreveport Regional Airport’s progress story reaches beyond the number of travelers passing through its terminal. A maintenance base is employing 127 people locally, and fall flight additions are set to expand travel options, even as the airport reports fewer passengers than a year earlier.
SkyWest’s maintenance base opened July 21, 2025. As of Sept. 17, 2026, it had 127 active local employees, according to information supplied by airport spokesman Mark Crawford.
“Additional hiring is planned and ongoing,” Crawford said in his written response to BIZ.
That employment provides a separate measure of the airport’s role in the regional economy. Alongside its passenger service, Shreveport Regional is a workplace supporting the operation and maintenance of aircraft.
New connections ahead
United is scheduled to begin daily nonstop service to Chicago on Oct. 25, Crawford said. Allegiant’s twice-weekly nonstop Orlando service is scheduled to resume Oct. 1.
For local businesses, the additions offer more choices when planning trips or bringing clients and colleagues into the market. Whether those flights translate into higher overall passenger totals will become clearer in subsequent activity reports.
A mixed passenger picture
The airport’s July report, the latest posted when this story was prepared, recorded 439,645 arriving and departing air-carrier passengers through the first seven months of 2026. That was down 6.84% from 471,936 during the same period in 2025.
July alone accounted for 80,988, compared with 82,000 a year earlier, a decline of 1.23%. These figures count passenger arrivals and departures, not unique individuals.
The airport cautions that its published statistics may be preliminary and subject to change. The figures establish the direction of reported traffic, but do not explain the causes of the decline.
Taken together, the developments offer a more complete picture than any single measure. Passenger activity remains below the prior year’s pace, while the SkyWest base has established a local workforce and additional flights are on the calendar.
For Shreveport-Bossier, the next chapter will be measured both in travelers using those connections and in the aviation work taking place on the ground.