Hamilton’s Munro Airport’s is flying high.
Cathie Puckering, acting president and CEO for John C. Munro International Airport, said passenger traffic jumped 80 per cent last year over 2016 to become the country’s fastest growing airport.
Last year, 599,146 passengers flew out of Munro, compared to 333,368 passengers in 2016, the airport said in a news release on Wednesday.
Puckering said much of the increase is the result of a changing market place that saw increased services from the airlines.
She points to Air Canada flights into Montreal, expanded services from Westjet and the addition of the discount airline Flair.
LISTEN: Cathie Puckering joins The Bill Kelly Show on 900 CHML
Puckering said those flights, combined with the winter flights from Air Transat and Sunwing to southern destinations, made for a very successful year.
“This is an exciting time for Hamilton International as more passengers discover the ease and convenience of travelling from Hamilton” Puckering said.
“The passengers are originating from Hamilton and surrounding areas including Toronto and beyond thanks to the wide variety of destinations being served from Hamilton,” she added.
To help deal with the growth, the airport has invested almost $5 million to improve facilities.
That includes a new covered and heated international walkway, upgrading the roadways and runways and renovations to the duty-free store.
Hamilton International also continues to be the country’s largest overnight express cargo airport.
In 2017, cargo volume rose 13 per cent over the previous year.