The Pocatello Regional Airport boasted record-breaking numbers in 2016, and airport manager David Allen projects that figures will steadily climb in 2017.

Year-end numbers compiled by airport staff indicate passenger departures and arrivals totaled 67,218 in 2016 — a 41 percent increase from 2015’s total of 47,817. The airport closed 2016 with 6,037 passengers in December — a 57 percent increase from 3,835 in December 2015.

“Our records with SkyWest (Airlines) go back to 1996, and the number of travelers in 2016 is the most they’ve ever seen,” Allen said. “It’s also the most traffic the airport had since 2006, which was the last year we had a second carrier in Pocatello.”

Also, starting March 1, SkyWest will return to offering twice-daily flights in and out of Pocatello on Saturdays. The airport announced in December that SkyWest would trim its Saturday schedule to just a single arrival and departure starting Jan. 1.

“It’s not making them a bunch of money, but it’s not losing them money either,” Allen said. “Even though it’s not heavy, there are people that really depend on Saturday travel on a regular basis. … It makes it much easier to schedule, and it increases that potential capacity that we can fill.”

Allen says the record-setting year is a collaborative effort between the airport’s marketing plan, its social media presence and the Pocatello-Chubbuck Chamber of Commerce airport committee.

“All three of those working together and collaborating together were successful at reaching people and educating them on at least looking at the fares and then showing them why we thought it was a better value to fly from Pocatello,” Allen said.

Though there are no changes planned in the immediate future for more flights to be added to Pocatello’s airport, Allen says the plan is to keep pushing for more growth.

“It’s going to be tougher,” he said. “We’ve filled the easy seats. The seats we will fill now are going to be the tougher ones. ... The growth will be slower, but it will be growth, and that’s what we need to be able to do to show that we’re pushing the edge of our current capacity.”

According to the Associated Press, the Salt Lake City International Airport also set a new record in 2016, welcoming more than 23 million passengers during a one-year period. The number represents a 4 percent increase from the previous year.