Myrtle Beach airport hits the one million mark

The Myrtle Beach International Airport hit a major milestone Thursday morning when the one millionth passenger of 2017 arrived shortly after 10:30 a.m. on a Spirit Airlines flight from Chicago.

That beats the total year total of 2016, during which 972,000 passengers passed through the airport, increasing seat capacity by 20 percent.

This milestone will be the first time in the history of MYR that the airport has achieved 1 million arriving passengers in a calendar year, the airport said in a statement.

“Passenger volumes for the first nine months of 2017 are near what airlines reported for 12 months ending December 2016,” said Scott Van Moppes, Horry County director of airports.

Spirit Airlines remains the largest carrier with 54 percent of the seat capacity, followed by American with 18 percent, Delta with 13 percent, and Allegiant with 11 percent of the seat market share, the airport said.

There are seven commercial air carriers that serve the Myrtle Beach airport, including Allegiant, American, Delta, Porter, Spirit, United and WestJet.

That’s more commercial air carriers than any other airport in the region -- Charleston has six, Greenville has five and Columbia has three.

The Myrtle Beach airport has also grown nonstop air service to 38 markets, while Charleston has 24.

Check back later for more information on this breaking story.

This story was originally published November 2, 2017 at 10:35 AM with the headline "Myrtle Beach airport hits the one million mark."