With one month still left to count, Redmond Airport has already surpassed its all-time mark for most passenger boardings in a year, according to data released Friday.

Official statistics from the airport showed 18,347 passengers boarded flights in November, up 28.9 percent from the 14,238 recorded in the same month last year. To date, more than 196,000 travelers have boarded flights from Redmond, about 7,000 more than the number recorded in all of 2005, the airport’s previous record year.

Redmond Airport needs less than 4,000 passenger boardings in December to break the 200,000 mark for the first time ever.

”It’s pretty amazing,” said Airport Manager Carrie Novick. ”But it isn’t a surprise. Just like last year, we’ve benefited from (Delta Connection’s) flights to Salt Lake City, as well as (United Express’ weekend) Denver flights in the summer.”

Novick added that, while the Denver service ended Oct. 28, Horizon Air’s daily flights to Los Angeles more than compensated.

Jen Boyer, media relations manager with Horizon, said the airline is happy with the route’s performance since its launch in August, although no specific numbers are available.

Boyer added that Horizon is phasing out its 37-seat prop planes in favor of the 74-seat Bombardier Q400 turboprop. Horizon flights from Redmond to Seattle and Portland are currently flown on the smaller props.

”We’re still looking into markets where we would upgrade,” Boyer said. ”We haven’t committed on when and where the upgrades would be. We’ll make that decision as more of our new Q400s come in.”

Redmond Airport’s Novick said she expects that Horizon will use the Q400s, already flying from Central Oregon to Los Angeles, to serve the Seattle route as well, given the airport’s increasing passenger traffic.

”They may reduce the flight frequency, I don’t know,” Novick said. ”But the number of seats (to Seattle) will still be there.”

She added that the airport still has not heard from United about renewing direct flights to Denver, or from Frontier Airlines about possibly starting Redmond-Denver service. Frontier has been actively seeking markets to connect to its Denver hub with its own new fleet of Q400s.

”If we do get (summer Denver service) back, we wouldn’t be contacted until spring,” Novick said.

That’s roughly when the terminal expansion project will start.

It follows the parking expansion, which increased capacity to 1,120 spaces. A few finishing touches remain to be completed, but all spots are now open, Novick said.

Redmond Airport currently has 23 daily flights to Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Eugene. Delta’s Salt Lake City flight, operated by SkyWest Airlines, has been Redmond’s only eastbound connection since the end of the Denver service.