Robert C.
Yelp
Smallest 'international' airport in the world.
We flew from San Jose to Seattle, and then took a connecting flight to Kalispell, where we rented a car to drive to Glacier National Park.
This airport is very small -only 4 gates, in one main terminal.
When we deplane on the tarmac we have to go outside down stairs instead of through a connecting ramp directly from the plane to the terminal. We are lugging carry on luggage down the stairs, onto the tarmac in the elements. OK in summer, but someone is just waiting to slip on the ice during winter!
Going to the Alamo car rental is a breeze, as it is just steps away in the main terminal, with the rental cars and parking right next to the terminal.
Returning the car is similarly easy. Alaska Airlines has a kiosk for printing out boarding passes, as none of our hotels in Glacier National Park had a wifi connection to a printer. TSA lines -what TSA lines!?
Free wifi in the waiting lounges , with a foursome of electrical outlets within each batch of a dozen or so lounge chairs, so no fighting for recharging your iPhone!
No escalator to the second floor , but they have a single small elevator for those who don't want to lug their luggage up and down the stairs -OK except when a plane discharges a plane load of passengers . Clean and very accessible bathrooms.
Our flight back to Seattle was delayed 20 minutes due to a gate delay of the plane in Seattle, before it got back to Kalispell to pick us up.
Tiny airport means tiny local commuter airliners, instead of the long range twin jet liners. Gates 1A, 1B and 1C are wheelchair accessible ramps leading directly to the tarmac, where one boards outdoors right up the staircase into the side of the plane.
Alaska Airlines/Horizon Airlines use their smaller Bombadier Q400 twin turboprop planes for flights to and from this airport. These 78 passenger planes cruise at 414 mph, rather than the 514 mph of the 160 passenger twin jet Boeing 737-800s, don't have reclining seats, nor in seat electrical outlets, and require extra time for all carry on wheeled luggage to be valet checked in at the plane entry, due to only a 6 inch tall overhead compartment hatch. They also deplane using an exterior stairwell, rather than through a connecting enclosed gateway ramp. On the positive side, they do have two exit doors in use rather than one exit door in use.
Our flight back to Seattle was delayed 20 minutes due to a gate delay of the plane in Seattle, before it got back to Kalispell to pick us up.
If we had had the standard twinjet airliner, we could have made our connecting flight in Seattle. As it is, we missed the connecting flight, and had to stay an extra 2 hours in Seattle to catch the next flight.
Very pricey flying in and out of this airport. It cost $820 total for the two of us going the 2158 miles roundtrip. By comparison it cost $1040 for the two of us going the 4712 miles roundtrip to Kahului, Maui. That's what competition does.
This tiny airport has short lines to the planes, but uses slower local commuter planes, with less features than the larger jet airliners, and flights are more costly on a per mile basis. You can't have your cake and eat it too.