With a jump in passenger traffic of 80 per cent last year over 2016, John C. Munro Hamilton International has become the country's fastest growing airport.

It handled 599,146 passengers in 2017, up from 333,368 in 2016.

Cathie Puckering, the airport's acting president and CEO, said she expects continued growth in coming years, thanks to new services for 2018.

John C. Munro Hamilton International also continues to be the country's largest overnight express cargo airport. In 2017, its cargo volume rose 13 per cent as it asserted itself as a strategic gateway for facilitating goods movement from coast to coast and across the globe.

"This is an exciting time for Hamilton International as more passengers discover the ease and convenience of travelling from Hamilton," Puckering said in a news release. "The passengers are originating from Hamilton and surrounding areas including Toronto and beyond thanks to the wide variety of destinations being served.

"Low-cost carriers have opened leisure air travel to millennials and young families which can be seen in our airport terminal daily."

The airport invested almost $5 million to improve and upgrade facilities in 2017, including projects such as a new covered and heated international walkway, improved and convenient vehicle parking pay stations, rehabilitation of the roadways and runways and renovations to the duty-free location.