The usual elbow-to-navel BART commute crowds were mostly absent the day before Thanksgiving. Not so on the year-old Oakland Airport Connector, the automated people-mover that hauls passengers between the Coliseum Station and Oakland International Airport. The three-car trains were crowded with folks heading to the airport.

BART and airport officials say the rail link — mired for years in funding shortages and disputes about its necessity — has been a success. It celebrated its one-year anniversary on Saturday and a couple of days later carried its millionth passenger.

According to BART, the 3.2-mile airport link is carrying 37 percent more passengers than the AirBART shuttle bus route it replaced. The connector, which is operated under contract by Doppelmayr, the Austrian company that built the system, is hauling an average of 3,300 people a day.

And Port of Oakland officials, who operate the airport, give it credit for helping increase Oakland’s air traffic, which is up 8.2 percent.

“It’s been a tremendous success,” BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said. “We’re very happy with the ridership, but the most important thing is that we’re getting a lot of positive feedback. People are tweeting pictures, posting things on social media.”

A BART passenger survey found that 99 percent of those asked rate the service as either excellent or good.

Aboard the connector Wednesday, riders agreed, lauding its cleanliness, smooth ride, reliable performance and pleasant views, though several complained that fares were too pricey.

“It’s super efficient and super clean,” said Maddy Cooper, 19, a biology student at UC Berkeley. “But it’s a little more expensive than the bus was.”

Ivan Santiago, 22, a Richmond security guard, took that complaint a notch higher: “It is a lot pricier,” he said.

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BART officials set the one-way fare on the connector at $6 to cover operating expenses. Critics of the connector, who said BART and the airport should have instead run an improved bus shuttle and invested the savings elsewhere, argued for the higher fare. The project cost $484 million — money that transit advocates argued would have been better spent elsewhere in the beleaguered regional transit system.

The connector carries passengers down Hegenberger Road and into the airport, mostly on elevated tracks, in about eight minutes. AirBART buses typically made the trip in 10 to 15 minutes, raising questions from activists about whether the time savings was worth the considerable cost. The AirBART fare was $3.

The connector runs every six minutes between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. and every 20 minutes between 11 p.m. and midnight on weekdays. When it opened, it ran every 20 minutes during the first couple of morning hours as well, but after customers complained — and crowded the first daily train — BART boosted the frequency.

Shortly after its start, the airport connector had two breakdowns that had critics saying “I told you so” and riders questioning whether the connector would be worthwhile. Dopplmayr must run the service on time at least 99.5 percent or it faces financial penalties. So far, Trost said, the operator has met the standard. Last quarter, BART reported, the airport connector had a 99.7 percent on-time record.

“We had a couple of hiccups in the beginning,” Trost said, “but now it’s very reliable, and very successful.”

Passengers riding the connector Wednesday seemed happy with the ride and accepting of the fare, perhaps begrudgingly. Heading toward the airport in the morning, they repeatedly filled all three cars of each train. Several said the connector was still better, and possibly cheaper, than taking a taxi or ride service or hassling with parking.

“It’s quick and it’s convenient,” Santiago said. “It’s a lot better than taking a taxi,”

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle com Twitter: @ctuan