TRANSPORTATION
Highway Transportation
Rapid City lies at the intersection of Interstate 90 and Highways
16 and 44 and South Dakota Highway 79. Highway 79 is being expanded
to a four-lane highway with plans to ultimately connect with a similar
project being undertaken in Nebraska. Interstate and intrastate motor
freight is provided by more than 30 transport companies. Rapid City
is a net importer of truck service. As a consequence, we have attractive
opportunities for the export of goods from the Black Hills.
Air Transportation
The
Rapid City Regional Airport, is the primary commercial service airport for Rapid City and the Black Hills. Conveniently located 8 mile east of downtown Rapid City, it’s close proximity and great connections make this a tremendous asset for our community.
The airport is served by Northwest Airlines with service to Minneapolis/St. Paul; Delta Airlines to Salt Lake City; United Airlines to Denver, with seasonal (summer) service to Chicago O’Hare; and Allegiant Airlines with twice weekly service to Las Vegas.
Rapid City has excellent air service for a community of 60,000. With over 17 daily departures, our airport provides good connections to most domestic markets and several international destinations through our gateway hubs. In numbers of available airline seats per capita, Rapid City consistently ranks among the tops in the nation for communities under 200,000.
In 2005, our airport served over 500,000 inbound and outbound passengers. Since 1996, the total number of passengers has grown by over 38%, and still continues to rise.
This excellent service is complemented by several convenience’ at the airport, including parking within 50 yards of the ticked counters, free Wi-Fi throughout the concourse, full service restaurant and lounge, a gift shop and news stand, 6 national rental car agencies, short waits at the security checkpoint, averaging less than 5 minutes.
Frequently flyers in Rapid City enjoy the ability to leave their homes 60-90 minutes before departure and make their flight without the hassles and congestion experienced at “big city” airports.
One of the other advantages of air service in Rapid City is the fare structure. All of the airlines price this market as a “leisure” destination, and therefore we historically have ticket prices less than airports of our size in the upper Midwest and Rocky Mountains. In fact, our fare comparable to Minneapolis/St. Paul, and just slightly higher than Denver or Salt Lake City (less than $50 per round trip ticket). And with Allegiant Airlines offering low fare service to Las Vegas twice weekly, an inexpensive get away to the southwest averages less than $200 a round trip.
Rapid City Regional Airport – “Big City” service with the convenience of “small city” and is truly your easy way out.
Corporate/Private Aircraft:
The Rapid City Regional Airport is home to several businesses that can support your non-airline aviation needs.
Westjet Air Center is the full service fixed base operation located at the airport. Westjet provides air charter, aircraft management, maintenance, flight training, aircraft sales and fuel for based and transient aircraft. They are open 24/7 to assist you.
VisionAir is our newest aircraft service provider on the airport providing aircraft charter, and air ambulance services for our community.
Waypoint Aviation provides flight training and FAA testing services at the airport.
Tri-States Avionics provides aircraft avionics and instruments sales, installation and maintenance.
Available Land:
The airport has several building sites available for hangar development, and is in the process of preparing additional areas for development to include commercial and industrial sites for aviation related businesses.
For additional information regarding our airport, please contact Mason Short, Executive Director at 605-394-4195 or visit our website at www.rcgov.org/Airport/pages/ .
Public Transportation
Rapid City public transportation is provided by RapidRide. RapidRide
is a public bus system that offers service from 6:35 a.m. until 6:05
p.m. during the workweek.
LINK: Rapid Transit System
Rail Transportation
Rapid City and the Black Hills are served by the Dakota
Minnesota & Eastern Railroad. The DM&E provides rail
service to the east, south and west.
The DM&E is in the process of expanding its service area into
the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. This expansion will be the most
ambitious development of new rail in the United States in many years.
The DM&E will become a major carrier of low sulfur coal to eastern
markets. The expansion plans will also include an upgrade of their
entire existing rail network.
The new and improved rail system will provide additional transportation
options for the shipment of commodities and finished products to
and from western South Dakota.
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