Passengers make Sea-Tac ninth busiest airport in U.S.

Fliers using Sea-Tac Airport at record numbers have made it the ninth busiest in the nation.

Passenger volumes in 2016 — the sixth consecutive record-breaking year — boosted Sea-Tac up from 13th place, the Port of Seattle said Thursday.

Sea-Tac saw 45.7 million passengers in 2016, an 8 percent increase.

The record growth moved Sea-Tac past Houston, Phoenix, Miami and Charlotte.

An average of 125,000 passengers per day make their way through security lines and board planes at Sea-Tac. It takes 18,500 people working at the airport to support those passengers, the port said.

International traffic increased at the airport in 2016. Asia is Sea-Tac’s No. 1 international destination. Passenger traffic to the region increased 4.1 percent in 2016.

Air cargo traffic went up for the fifth straight year in 2016, increasing 10.2 percent.

The port is investing more than $2 billion in capital improvement projects at Sea-Tac. Those include expanding the North Satellite terminal used by Alaska Airlines, creating a new international arrivals facility and installing a new outbound baggage handling system.

This story was originally published January 27, 2017 at 1:59 PM with the headline "Passengers make Sea-Tac ninth busiest airport in U.S.."