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– The Jamestown Regional Airport expects to board about 5300 passengers this year, more than doubling its total from 2008, said airport manager Matthew Leitner.

Jamestown’s airport is one of several across the state reporting increased boardings this year, leading to an eight percent increase in boardings statewide compared to 2010. In Jamestown, things are only looking to get better as the airport opened its new terminal earlier this week, providing passengers with a larger, updated and more passenger-friendly terminal.

The terminal has amenities such as wireless internet and flat-screen TVs, and is also larger and more spacious in all phases, said Leitner.

“Everything’s running great,” he said of the new terminals. “There were a couple little issues that we had to get resolved during the transition, but in retrospect everything went about flawless.”

Flights are no longer connected to Devils Lake, and fly direct to Minneapolis in about 48 minutes because of the new jet Delta recently started using at the airport. The improved facility and direct flights to Minneapolis should only help the airport continue to grow its boardings in the future, building on an already great year.

Leitner said boardings have been up between 15 to 25 percent pretty much every month this year, and they expect to finish with about 5300 passengers this year – a number not reached since 1978.

The aiport is holding an official ribbon cutting ceremony for the new terminal on Friday at 10 a.m.