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Jan. 15--GULFPORT -- Despite the high fuel costs and the shaky economy, more people flew into and out of Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in 2008 than ever before.

"This was a record year for us," said Jeremiah Gerald, air service development manager, with a 6.5 percent increase over last year. The next best year was in 2000, before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when 949,000 total passengers came through Gulfport. In 2008, the airport saw 974,861 passengers, an increase of 50,000 over 2000 and 63,598 over 2007.

"We want to break the million mark," said Gerald. "If it hadn't been for September, we would have been very close to a million."

In September, the Coast casinos were closed for three days during Hurricane Gustav and the airport for one day. The Houston airport closed later in September during Hurricane Ike.

The year started out strong, as the airport brought in additional carriers and seats. Some didn't last the year when the high price of jet fuel forced airlines to withdraw service. Now that the cost of fuel is down, the airlines face the economic slump and Gerald said fewer people are flying.

The airport is restructuring some of the incentives it offers to the airlines.

"You have to be fluid and able to change," he said. "You can't even plan for a lot of things that affect this industry tremendously."

Gerald expects other airports in the region are going to report a loss for last year, with Mobile down about five percent and Pensacola more than that, he said.

The load factor, which is the number of passengers compared to the number of available seats, dropped about 5 percent last year. When AirTran pulled out of Gulfport this month, "We immediately started seeing increased loads," said Gerald. US Airways, which had pulled back to two flights, has announced it will bring back its third flight starting in March.

Gerald said more new service is coming to the airport.

"We should have some news in the next couple of weeks," he said.