Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport passed the 3 million mark in passengers for the second year in a row in 2024.

According to statistics supplied by the Birmingham Airport Authority, the airport saw 3.2 million passengers, the best yearly total for the airport since 2008, and 6 percent better than last year.

In 2023, 3.05 million passengers traveled through the airport.

And the annual tally is light-years ahead of the 1.27 million in the pandemic year of 2020. Last year was the first since 2019 that the airport surpassed 3 million passengers since before COVID-19 crippled air travel.

October was the busiest month, with 303,020 passengers.

Holiday travel was also up, with the airport recording an increase of 11% over 2023.

Airport spokesperson Kim Hunt said the 2004 total was BHM’s third busiest year on record.

“We actually had higher enplanement numbers in 2007 and 2008,” Hunt said.

Enplanements, or the number of passengers boarding aircraft, is a major metric as the majority of airport revenues are generated directly or indirectly from them. Passengers may board more than one flight between their origination point and ultimate destination.

BHM had 1.64 million enplanements in 2007 and 1.62 million in 2008.

Hunt said the airport’s recovery since the pandemic has been “steady and strong.”

“The pandemic brought a quick halt to the growth trend we were seeing at that time,” Hunt said. “We have every reason to believe that 2025 will bring continued traffic growth. As we continue to grow enplanements, we have a great story to share with the airlines that are always looking for opportunities to invest their assets in areas that can deliver positive results for them.”

Last year, Spirit Airlines launched low-fare service to Fort Lauderdale, while Southwest added nonstop service to both Nashville and Phoenix during the fourth quarter.

Southwest handled about 33% of the flights in December, with Delta’s 28% share edging out American Airlines at 27%. United provided a further 10%, and newcomer Spirit added 2%.

BHM offers nonstop service to 21 airports in 18 cities.

It was a good year for Huntsville International Airport as well, with air traffic up nearly 11% over 2023, serving more than 1.6 million passengers.

Nationally, enplanements had an all-time high in July of this year with 91.8 million, but trended down in October to 82.8 million, in the last available month for national numbers.

In 2024, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport remained the busiest airport in the world, with the ATL handling more than 62.7 million passengers in 2024. The Nashville International Airport set another annual passenger record with 24.5 million passengers.