More international travelers than ever passed through Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport last year, and overall passenger traffic was up nearly 7% compared with 2023, according to figures released Tuesday by the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

The return of Aer Lingus' nonstop flights from the Twin Cities to Dublin and Delta adding the same route were among the factors that pushed international travel to a record 3.56 million passengers for the year, smashing the previous mark set five years ago by 19.6%. Lufthansa also started year-round service from MSP to Frankfurt, Germany. With those new routes and others already on the books, airlines at MSP served 32 international destinations last year, tying the record set in 2019.

"In the past year, we celebrated the addition of several nonstop routes to Europe," said Brian Ryks, CEO of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which owns and operates the airport. "We had strong performance from our airlines, expanding global connections and adding capacity and destinations across the U.S."

Terminal 2, home of Sun Country Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Icelandair, set two records last year. More than 6.8 million passengers used the terminal where an expansion to add more gates is underway, a 12% increase over the old mark set in 2023. The terminal also saw 46,655 takeoffs and landings last year, the most in its history. Part of the uptick in passenger traffic at Terminal 2 was attributed to hometown airline Sun Country, which added 13 new markets while expanding its portfolio of nonstop destinations from MSP to 103.

The airport also saw an increase in the number of nonstop destinations — international and domestic — available to passengers, jumping from 156 in 2023 to 163 last year, the MAC data shows.

Travelers flying out of MSP in 2024 rose 6.7% compared to the previous year, with a daily average of 60,644 departing passengers. Overall, the airport saw total passenger traffic rise for the fourth straight year and was just 2 million shy of the overall record of 39.5 million set in 2019.

"This past year, we saw strong commitment from MSP's legacy airlines and new carriers to add service, expand frequencies and add more seats with larger aircraft ... which supports Minnesota businesses and give travelers more options," said MAC Chairman Rick King.

Nearly seven in 10 travelers at MSP flew with Delta, the airport's dominant carrier. Sun Country was a distant second, serving 11% of passengers, followed by Southwest, American, United and Frontier, the MAC said.

A slew of accolades also made it a banner year for MSP. J.D. Power's Airport Satisfaction Study ranked MSP No. 1 among mega airports for the second time in three years. Travel + Leisure readers ranked MSP as the best U.S. airport in the publication's World's Best Awards, while Airports Council International named MSP the best airport in North America among those serving between 25 and 40 million passengers.