Idaho Falls city officials on Thursday celebrated the departure of an Alaska Airlines flight for Boise.

It’s the first flight in a decade linking eastern Idaho and the state capital.

“We are thrilled this moment has become a reality for our great community,” said Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper in a city news release. “Providing this direct flight to Boise opens up greater economic opportunities through the only intrastate commercial airline service.”

The flight left from Idaho Falls Regional Airport for the Boise Airport around 9 a.m. The daily, year-round flight will be operated with a Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft capable of seating 76 passengers, the release said. It will cut a trip that takes four hours in a vehicle down to an hour.

The flight times work out well for a day trip from Idaho Falls to Boise: a mid-morning departure with a return flight in the early evening, the release said. The route also links all key population centers across the state to Boise, joining Alaska Airlines’ existing flights from the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene and Pullman/Moscow areas.

“A flight like this comes from a lot of hard work between airport and Alaska Airlines staff,” Idaho Falls Regional Airport Director Rick Cloutier said in the release. “… We continue to work hard to provide additional flights and destinations to the people of Idaho Falls and throughout the region.”

Once in Boise, travelers can connect to one of the 15 cities serviced by Alaska Airlines. Destinations include Las Vegas, Portland, Oregon, Chicago, San Francisco, Spokane, Washington, and Austin, Texas.

“We’re proud to reconnect Idaho Falls and Boise with nonstop air service that will help drive growth of the region’s economy, plus make commuting between the two cities much more convenient,” said Joe Sprague, president at Horizon Air, in the release. “With daily flights to both Seattle and Boise, our guests in Idaho Falls now have more options for connecting flights to a wide array of destinations.”

Idaho Falls Regional Airport is in the midst of another record-setting year. In 2021, nearly 450,000 commercial airline passengers used Idaho Falls Regional Airport, surpassing the previous annual record by about 100,000. Between January and March of this year, the airport saw a record total of 105,944 passengers make their way through its terminal. The number of first-quarter passengers was 37% higher than the previous record of 77,567, which was set in 2019.

The airport recently completed a $12 million 38,000-square-foot expansion project, the release said. The expansion project, funded entirely by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aviation Improvement Program, has added two new terminal gates, an improved Transportation Security Administration screening area and expanded restaurant space.