The Colorado Springs Airport saw tens of thousands of travelers over Labor Day weekend, exceeding original estimates and closing out a record-breaking summer season.

Between Friday and Monday, just over 30,000 people passed through the airport — 2,000 more than projected ahead of the holiday weekend, according to airport senior communications specialist Dana Shield and previous Gazette reporting.

Monday was the busiest day with 4,900 of the weekend’s 16,000 total passengers who moved through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, Shield said.

Those figures show a 20% increase from 2022 Labor Day weekend travel numbers, she said.

While 2022 had the highest number of enplanements, or travelers boarding planes out of the airport, in over 20 years, 2023 saw June traffic hitting a 20-year record high for the month and five record high traffic days between June and August.

The increase in traffic can not only be attributed to standard travel use normalizing since the pandemic, airport staff said, but also from the addition of new air carriers, more routes, increased flight frequency and larger mainline aircrafts at the airport.

The airport is gearing up for anticipated holiday travel as Colorado slips into cooler months. An expansion and remodel of the TSA queuing area, which launched in mid-May and is expected to be completed by the end of September, will increase the area from 1,700 to around 3,100 square feet, officials said.

The project will cost $1.2 million and will be paid for through reserve funds, not taxpayer money, officials said.

“For the holidays, the queuing area will be able to accommodate higher levels of traffic that we project to see during the holiday travel season,” Shield said.

The airport on Wednesday is expected to announce that it will also launch a “multi-year” construction project on its concourse area.