By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

Travel by planes and automobiles was up across Iowa in 2023. DOT spokesperson Stuart Anderson says airplane travel led the way.

“We did end 2023 setting a record for passenger counts at our eight commercial service airports. With 4.6 million passengers, which was higher than 4.5 million, which was in 2019,” Anderson says. Travel on the state roadways in the last year was also above the pre-pandemic level.

“We did end the year slightly below the 2019 December, but overall we are 1.7% higher in vehicle miles of travel than in calendar year 22, and one tenth of a percent higher than calendar year 2019,” he says.

He says there was an increase in rail shipping of some products that had slowed during the pandemic.  “We did see motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts shipped on rail increased by 12.3% over the previous calendar year, petroleum products on rail went up 11%,” He says. “Grain products on rail went down 9.8% compared to 2022, in large part due to less exports of our grains overall.”

Anderson provided the numbers during the state transportation commission meeting Tuesday.