Jackson Hole Airport finished the year with a near record annual total of people getting on and off planes.

Airport officials logged 296,369 enplanements, the busiest year at Teton County’s only commercial airport since 2008. That was up 7 percent over 2012.

During 2012, by comparison, fewer than 278,000 passengers boarded a plane at the airport.

The airport’s biggest year was in 2008, the last year before the Great Recession, when the count was 305,566.

Though new winter flights from Seattle and JFK in New York City were part of the picture, Airport Manager Ray Bishop said steady growth at the airport is due mainly to other improvements.

The bottom line, Bishop said Sunday, is that “what’s changing the numbers is filling seats, bringing more people in” throughout the year.

Airport business ran in line with Jackson’s overall tourist economy. The busiest months at the airport were August, July and September, in descending order. The busiest of winter months, in order, were March, February and January. The six busiest months of 2013 accounted for nearly three-quarters of total air traffic.

November had a measly 7,269 enplanements — less than 2.5 percent of the year’s total travelers — and registered as the airport’s slowest month.

January, February and May all saw 15 percent-plus increases in traffic compared to 2012. Year-over-year growth slackened as 2013 progressed, but no months ended up registering a decrease in air traffic compared to the year before.

By airline, United led the way, with nearly 102,000 enplanements logged. SkyWest Airlines totaled about 63,000 outbound travelers, followed by Delta Airlines, American Airlines and Frontier Airlines.

Contributing to the busy year was the debut of three new flights this winter, including flights from New York and Seattle. Despite this area’s small resident population, Jackson Hole Airport now offers direct service to those places and to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Newark, N.J.

The year of heavy air traffic came to a head just as 2013 rolled to a close. Airport management has called Dec. 28, the Saturday after Christmas, the single busiest day in Jackson Hole Airport history to that point. Though he didn’t have figures with him Sunday when he was reached, Bishop said the airport broke the Dec. 28 record Jan. 4, and estimated the counts at just less than 4,000 each day, about half flying in and half out.

The growth in the number of passengers at Jackson airport has had ups and downs but business has risen steadily over two decades.

The count in 1990 was just more than 140,000 passengers. Numbers climbed through 1993, dipped for two years, rose through 1998, dipped for four years and then began climbing again.

During those years the airport has lengthened runways, enlarged its terminal and campaigned to bring airlines to Jackson. Resorts and other tourism businesses have also lured airlines with financial guarantees through the private nonprofit corporation Jackson Hole Air.

Jackson is the busiest airport in Wyoming. Second is the Casper/Natrona County Airport, which set its own record for enplanements in 2013: 100,124.

This article appeared in the Jackson Hole News & Guide on January 20, 2014.