Baseball world cup, international students credited with contributing to record year at Thunder Bay airport

A record number of passengers passed through the Thunder Bay International Airport last year and airport officials say a number of factors helped drive that increase.

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According to a written release issued by the airport authority, 844,627 passengers flew in to, or out of, the airport in 2017. Officials were already pointing to a strong year in the fall, as the Under-18 Baseball World Cup and a reportedly large influx of international students helped drive a record August.

That trend is expected to continue in 2018, according to Ed Schmidtke, the airport's president and chief executive officer.

"Special events hosted by our community will support airport volumes going forward," he was quoted as saying in a written release.

Among some of the events scheduled for this year that Schmidtke pointed to are the Canadian Ski Nationals in March, the annual general meeting of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in September and expected travel accommodations related to thearrival of a cruise ship to the city's harbour.

Other factors for the strong 2017 that the airport pointed to include a number of airlines offering increased capacity to northern destinations. The winter charter season also reportedly started earlier than usual.