2016 was one for the books for Cherry Capital Airport.

A record-setting number of passengers traveled through the airport in 2016: a total of 451,346, beating the 2005 record of 430,050. Both passenger enplanements and deplanements also set individual records. Cherry Capital Airport had 226,907 enplanements in 2016, beating the 2005 record of 217,018, and also had 224,439 deplanements in 2016, beating the 2015 record of 214,680.

The numbers make Cherry Capital Airport the fourth-largest airport in terms of passengers in Michigan behind Detroit Metro, Gerald R. Ford and Flint Bishop. Traverse City air service was up 5.1 percent in 2016 over the previous year.

“This is terrific news for Northern Lower Michigan as this growth in passengers confirms the overall economic impact to the region – from Frankfort to Petoskey, east to Gaylord, and north to the Mackinac Straights area," says Airport Director Kevin Klein.

The news comes on the heels of the announcement of new non-stop flight service coming between Cherry Capital Airport and Dallas Ft. Worth this summer, as well as expanded seats for air service to New York City via United Airline's Newark, Liberty Hub. The airport offers daily passenger air service through American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

An estimated 53 percent of total Cherry Capital Airport passengers are from outside the state of Michigan.