(Radio Iowa) – A spokesman for the Iowa D-O-T says air travel has been up, while highway travel has remained steady. Stuart Anderson says the latest data shows people are making more visits to the state’s airports. “October was another big month and another little bump up compared to last month, but still pretty consistently record numbers compared to past years. Anderson gave an update to the Transportation Commission at their meeting Tuesday and says the impact of the government shutdown on Iowa air travel isn’t yet clear.

“The shutdown went from October 1st through November 12th, certainly in October you can see there weren’t really shut down impacts, but that is pretty consistent. November, I think we’ll see some some influence that’s when we saw more of the impacts on flights being delayed or cancelled across the country. So that might influence the November numbers a little bit,” he says. Anderson says volumes on the state roadways haven’t changed much. “The October ’25 numbers were about one percent higher than October of ’24. Year to date, it’s zero-point-two percent higher than 2024, so pretty flat numbers, but again these are at the higher level where we’re at in recent years,” Anderson says.

One thing on the roadways that has changed is the number of fatal accidents. That number was at 251 through Wednesday (December 10), which he says continues to be a big improvement. “Twenty-three percent lower than the five-year average,” he says. There were 36 traffic deaths in Iowa last December. With the death this (Thursday) morning of a Shenandoah man, to number of confirmed deaths due to accidents this month, is two.