FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) – Officials at Fort Wayne's main airport are beaming after a record-breaking number of December passengers helped boost the airport's traffic by 8.5 percent last year.

The Journal Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1ztJLiB ) more than 324,000 people boarded flights last year at Fort Wayne International Airport, up from about 298,000 in 2013.

That passenger increase was helped by December's record traffic of just under 30,000 passengers, which was 21 percent higher than December 2013's traffic.

Last month's surge in passengers at the airport shattered a nearly 15-year record. The previous December record was just under 27,000 passengers in 2000.

The airport added two new daily nonstop flights in October from Fort Wayne to Philadelphia and Charlotte, North Carolina.

The passenger data was reviewed Monday by the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority board.