Raleigh-Durham International Airport’s passenger traffic hit new heights in 2018 as 12.8 million people departed or arrived through the airport during the calendar year.

That’s 9.7 percent growth over the 11.7 million passengers in 2017, according to airport officials.

December saw another double-digit growth with about 1.2 million passengers traveled through RDU during the holiday season, showing a 10.2 percent increase over the data of 2017.

“RDU’s record growth in 2018 reflects the airport’s economic benefit to central North Carolina,” said Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Landguth in the release.

According to the economic report released by the North Carolina Deparment of Transportation in January, RDU contributed a $12.6 billion annual economic impact to the North Carolina economy and supported more than 86,000 regional jobs.

Multiple airlines have announced new routes to RDU this month. Spirit Airlines and Via Airlines will both become new partners of RDU. Frontier Airlines has also announced new additional service, including flights connecting from Albany, Boston, Columbus, Hartford, Long Island, Jacksonville, Philadelphia and Tampa to Raleigh.

“The unparalleled demand highlights the importance of securing critical funding and starting work on capstone projects, like our new runway,” Landguth said.

The runway replacement plan will continue to be a priority for the Authority, which has been working to extend the life of RDU’s main runway continues and lay the groundwork for funding and construction of the new runway to replace it.