Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) dealt with a record number of passengers during 2016.

Annual passenger traffic rose 4.4 percent to just over 7.4 million, Airport International Group, the company that manages QAIA, said in a statement. Aircraft movement rose 2.8 percent to 73,784, while cargo traffic edged up 0.5 percent to 101,172 tons.

“2016 was a year of landmark achievements, during which QAIA broke several passenger traffic records while also laying the foundations for further growth,” Airport International Group CEO Kjeld Binger said. “Moving forward, we will continue to build on this year’s success, and to work toward ensuring that Jordan’s prime gateway to the world lives up to its people’s expectations and aspirations.”

Binger added that last year’s completion of the second phase of QAIA’s multimillion-dollar expansion project “not only considerably raised the airport’s passenger capacity, but also delivered on the group’s promise to provide a cutting-edge airport of which Jordanians can be proud.”

The second phase of the expansion project began in 2014 and was finally inaugurated in October. It involved adding around 43,000 square meters to the airport’s total area, mainly through lengthening its two piers. This raised annual passenger capacity from the current 9 million to 12 million passengers, with future plans to increase the capacity even further to 16 million passengers per year.

As a result of the expansion, the total number of gates in operation at QAIA has nearly doubled from 13 to 25. Eight of these are remote gates and 17 are contact gates. The additional nine contact gates are operated from two fixed-link bridges, as well as four new super fixed-link bridges, two of which can accommodate the world’s largest airplane; the Airbus A380.