An economic boost from Burning Man, airport travel hits record high

RENO, Nevada (KOLO) – Thousands of passengers travel through the Reno-Tahoe Airport this time of year. “On Sunday, August 25th, we had 20,000 passengers. That’s more than Christmas and Thanksgiving, our busiest holidays. So we had a lot of passengers.”

That’s a record, but the airport says it’s handling the rush well. “We just had our busiest day in 20 years. Despite that, operations have been pretty smooth. The advantage of that is that we can see those forecasts in advance. We can hire more staff, our partner airlines can hire more staff, and so can the TSA. We’re prepared for it, and it’s not our first rodeo with Burning Man, either. This year we were really well prepared.”

Burners spend their money at nearby hotels, casinos and shops, especially clothing stores like Junkee Clothing Exchange, which sell Burning Man costumes and accessories.

“The theme this year was ‘Curiosity and Stranger’. It was an Alice in Wonderland theme and that’s exactly our thing because we’re a costume shop all year round.”

Junkee’s will be increasing its staff and updating its inventory to match the Burning Man theme.

“We did a lot of Mad Hatters, Cheshire Cats and stuff like that and just classic burner clothes, Mad Max vibe and flowy boho look.”

This is the first time Junkee has had to handle the high demand for Burning Man at its new location. “We have more parking and more space here. For those two reasons alone, we were even busier this year than last year. We put up a sign at the airport, parked the Junkee van at the old location, and wrote ‘We’ve moved’ on it. I don’t think anyone missed us this year.”

Burning Man ends on Monday, September 2nd, and the airport is expecting an increase in travelers and debris.

“At some of the entrances, we’re going to have shoe covers that you can put over your shoes. I know that sounds totally silly, but we want to make sure we don’t have as much dust. Our janitorial staff works around the clock to make sure this airport stays clean. Not everyone is coming from Burning Man, so we want to give everyone who comes to RNO that experience. So just try to stay as clean as possible when you come through.”

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