Boise Airport Commission: Fog and a navigational outage caused Thanksgiving travel disruptions, director says
November 24, 2025 | Boise City, Boise, Ada County, Idaho
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Director Hubbs told the Boise Airport Commission that a combination of dense fog and a failure of FAA-maintained navigational equipment prevented aircraft from landing or taking off during one of the busiest travel days of the year, producing delays and diversions over the Thanksgiving period.
"We had a combination of dense fog and, any failure of our navigational system, which is maintained by FAA's tech operations," Director Hubbs said, adding that the runways themselves were not closed but could not be used. He said FAA did not come out and fix the issue during the event and the disturbance coincided with heavy travel, aggravating its impact.
Hubbs also reported routine maintenance: planned runway closures for painting, markings and vegetation removal, and a separate short closure of about five minutes after a small aircraft crashed off the end of the runway near Orchard Street. "We closed temporarily for a very short period of time for about 5 minutes when we had a small aircraft that crashed off the end of the runway on right in Orchard Street," he said.
On passenger counts, Hubbs said October enplanements rose 2% year over year and year-to-date passenger counts were up about 6% through the reporting period, describing continued growth for 2025. He flagged revenue and volume shifts: transportation-network-company fees increased (affecting terminal revenues), advertising timing differences affected revenue recognition, and FedEx freight landings were down about 68% compared with the prior October, a change Hubbs said FedEx had not explained.
A commissioner asked whether the FedEx decline reflected an operational change; Hubbs said FedEx had not reported any changes to the airport and the cause was unclear. On the nav-aid outage, Hubbs said the navigational aids are FAA-maintained and the timing with dense fog appeared to be a coincidence that made the outage more disruptive.
The commission heard no formal actions tied to the outages beyond asking staff to continue monitoring and reporting updates as they become available.
"We had a combination of dense fog and, any failure of our navigational system, which is maintained by FAA's tech operations," Director Hubbs said, adding that the runways themselves were not closed but could not be used. He said FAA did not come out and fix the issue during the event and the disturbance coincided with heavy travel, aggravating its impact.
Hubbs also reported routine maintenance: planned runway closures for painting, markings and vegetation removal, and a separate short closure of about five minutes after a small aircraft crashed off the end of the runway near Orchard Street. "We closed temporarily for a very short period of time for about 5 minutes when we had a small aircraft that crashed off the end of the runway on right in Orchard Street," he said.
On passenger counts, Hubbs said October enplanements rose 2% year over year and year-to-date passenger counts were up about 6% through the reporting period, describing continued growth for 2025. He flagged revenue and volume shifts: transportation-network-company fees increased (affecting terminal revenues), advertising timing differences affected revenue recognition, and FedEx freight landings were down about 68% compared with the prior October, a change Hubbs said FedEx had not explained.
A commissioner asked whether the FedEx decline reflected an operational change; Hubbs said FedEx had not reported any changes to the airport and the cause was unclear. On the nav-aid outage, Hubbs said the navigational aids are FAA-maintained and the timing with dense fog appeared to be a coincidence that made the outage more disruptive.
The commission heard no formal actions tied to the outages beyond asking staff to continue monitoring and reporting updates as they become available.
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