Dunedin Airport had its biggest month on record for passenger numbers in December, rounding off the busiest 12 months in the airport's history.
The facility hosted 84,914 passengers during the month and is closing in on its first million-passenger year, after 947,315 passed through in the 12 months to the end of December.
"It's getting close to that million,'' chief executive Richard Roberts said.
He said while the airport was "struggling'' to cater for the passenger boom, it was going ahead with expansion plans in the next financial year.
The city's success in filling extra flights also meant there was the possibility of even more arrivals at the airport.
Mr Roberts said December numbers beat the previous record month, July last year, by 600 or 700 passengers.
The busiest month for the airport was usually at Easter and, "all things being equal'', Easter in April this year should create another record.
The record numbers were mostly from an increase in domestic capacity.
That came from the likes of a new Jetstar Dunedin to Wellington service, introduced in 2015, and last year's decision by Air New Zealand to add an extra 30,000 annual seats to its Dunedin to Wellington capacity.
Passenger numbers had increased in line with a 10% increase in capacity on planes flying in and out of the city.
"The next thing then is we're knocking on the door and saying to the airline `crikey, what about another one?'.''
Mr Roberts said the airport was struggling to keep up with the extra numbers and a previously mooted expansion of the departure area would go ahead in the new financial year.
"This is where it's so hard to be ahead of the game,'' he said of expanding airport infrastructure.
There were situations where three airlines had a plane at the airport within 20 minutes.
Airport infrastructure was not easy to expand, whereas airlines had a more flexible asset in their aircraft.
Marketing and communication general manager Megan Crawford said the bumper month for the airport had coincided with
Dunedin being on the cover of Air New Zealand's in-flight KiaOra magazine with a story inside, and iD Dunedin fashion images on cups used on flights.
