This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
For the first time ever, Salt Lake City International Airport logged more than 23 million passengers during a 12-month period.
That happened between November 2015 and November 2016, the airport reported Tuesday.
It said the exact number of passengers in that time was 23,043,149, an increase of 4.3 percent from the previous such period.
The lion's share of that — 22.3 million passengers — was for domestic travel within the United States, up 3.5 percent.
International passengers totaled 738,394, up 35 percent. That increase came as Delta Air Lines began nonstop service to London in April, while in May KLM entered the market with nonstop service to Amsterdam and Air Canada began nonstop service to Toronto.
"This is a significant milestone," said Maureen Riley, executive director of the Salt Lake City Department of Airports. "The numbers demonstrate the need SLC has for updated facilities to accommodate the growth we're seeing in passenger traffic."
The airport is undergoing a $2.9 billion reconstruction project to replace existing terminals and concourses. The first phase is scheduled for completion by 2020. The airport announced an expected $350 million cost overrun to the project in November.
The rebuilding is funded through federal grants, passenger facility charges, rental car facility charges, revenue bonds and airport cash. The airport has said no local tax dollars will be spent on the project.
Still unresolved is how to pay the estimated $65 million to relocate the TRAX light rail station at the airport into a new terminal, and to elevate tracks to that new location.
The airport said it is now the 25th busiest in North America, and 85th busiest in the world. More than 330 flights depart there daily to 91 nonstop destinations.