Apr. 27—Passenger numbers at Colorado Springs Airport in March jumped to a 20-year high as its largest carrier, Southwest Airlines, celebrated its first year of service to the city.

The 87,346 passengers that boarded outbound flights last month were the most for any March since 2002, according to the airport.

That's up nearly 25% from February and 31% from January, two of the slowest months for travel, and just 612 passengers fewer than December, when the Christmas holiday boosts travel during the second half of the month.

"We are seeing a stabilization of capacity and we are filling those seats," said Greg Phillips, Colorado Springs aviation director.

"The numbers so far for April are up significantly from March," helped by the return of the Space Symposium, the city's largest convention, to full capacity of 10,000 attendees.

Traffic through the airport's security checkpoint, a key measure of passengers, is up in April more than 20% from a year ago.

The five airlines serving Colorado Springs — American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest and United — sold 78.9% of their seat capacity, up from 75.7% in February and the highest since 80.1% in December. The March load factor (percent of seats sold) was a big improvement from 63.4% in March 2021 but well below the 86.3% in March 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic slowed travel.

Passenger traffic for the first three months of the year totaled 223,934, more than double the total for the same period last year and the highest first-quarter total since 2008. The total for the 12 months ending in March — 1.05 million — is more than triple the total for the same period a year earlier. Airlines sold 73.9% of their seats during the first quarter, up from 59.1% during the first three months of 2021.

Phillips said the growth in passenger traffic means the airport fills its short-term parking lot on a regular basis, and during peak travel periods sometimes fills all 5,500 spots in short-term and long-term parking.

As a result, the airport is using part of its valet parking lot to handle overflow parking but the lot won't be available on a regular, full-time basis until this summer.

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