Travelers have long been able to rent vehicles at the Cody airport, and now, they’re able to rent bear spray, too.

After some debate last spring, Yellowstone Regional Airport (YRA) leaders accepted a Montana businessman’s proposal to install an automated kiosk that allows customers to rent and return cans of spray. The board approved the deal on a 4-2 vote in May and TrailQuipt got its system up and running in August.

The company charges $16 to borrow a can for two days or $28 for two weeks. Compared to buying a canister for $40 to $50, “that’s quite a cost savings for people — especially those that are flying in and can’t take it on a plane,” TrailQuipt founder Ryan Harbach told the YRA board in April. The service also reduces the number of wasted cans, Harbach said.

For hosting the automated kiosk and its 60 small lockers, YRA will get to keep 10% of the revenue. Harbach also suggested that having the airport listed as a rental location on TrailQuipt’s website — alongside a restaurant in West Yellowstone, a motel in Gardiner and a grizzly sanctuary outside Bozeman — could help spread the word about Cody as a travel destination.

The pitch won over Airport Director Aaron Buck, but a couple board members weren’t sold on the idea.

At the April 14 meeting, Board Chair Heidi Rasmussen said the 10% cut wasn’t worth the risk of a can being discharged and disrupting operations.

“I think there are easier ways to [theoretically] make $2,000 that don’t require bear spray,” she said. “And I’m just not very confident in the average human’s ability to follow directions.”

She also expressed concern about competing with the several Cody businesses that sell bear spray.

However, Buck and board member Zack Bowman downplayed the impact to local businesses, suggesting it would mostly affect Walmart.

“I would rather give our money to a Montana-based company than Walmart,” Bowman offered.

He also argued the safety concerns were “making a mountain out of molehill,” noting the Cody airport has long provided a bin for travelers to drop off unwanted cans of spray.

“I feel like every risk that we are concerned with [bear spray] right now, we face every day of the summer when people bring stuff in and out,” Bowman said.

Buck said the Jackson Hole Airport had “an incident” at a bear spray rental location, but that it didn’t disrupt any flights. TrailQuipt’s kiosk has been installed in a vestibule at YRA and he said any accident would mean “very minimal exposure to the rest of the terminal.”

While the machine is generally automated, a local worker periodically inspects the returned cans by hand and restocks them as necessary. At a Sept. 9 meeting, Buck said TrailQuipt was working to hire a local person for the part-time role.

YRA’s agreement with the company is for one year, “and we’ll see how that goes,” he told the board.