2nd straight year of record travel at Salt Lake City Airport

SALT LAKE CITY – Thanks in part to a spike in international travel, Salt Lake City International Airport is reporting record passenger growth for the second year in a row.

Bill Wyatt, executive director of the city’s Department of Airports, says passenger counts grew 4.5 per cent from January through December 2017 to a total of nearly 24.2 million.

It’s the first time the airport has served more than 24 million passengers in a 12-month period.

That includes an increase of more than 20 per cent among international passengers to a total of more than 913,000. Domestic travel increased nearly 4 per cent.

Wyatt says it underscores the need for the $3.6 billion redevelopment project currently underway at the airport, which ranks as the 25th busiest in North America. The first phase of the project is scheduled to be completed in 2020.