SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The days of arriving not long before your plane leaves Hancock Airport in Syracuse are over.

At 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, passengers were waiting in lines at the TSA security screening with TSA fully staffed and all lanes open.

“This is really exciting to see this number of passengers coming through. We’re continuing to break records right now,” said Jason Terreri, executive director of the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority.

Terreri said last week the airport set an all-time daily departure record, with over 5900 people flying out of Syracuse. He says newer carriers, like Southwest and Breeze, open new cities to travelers, and legacy carriers are adding more flights to their networks.

That’s why the airport will add a sixth TSA screening lane soon to handle the increased terminal traffic. Parking upgrades are set to start next year.

“We’re doing a North terminal expansion, South Terminal expansion,” Terreri said. “We’re looking in the next two years at a baggage system expansion. So, we’ve got a lot of things to stay ahead of this because we have a forecast. We know what’s coming. We just need to be ready for it.”

It wasn’t that long ago the departure boards and arrival boards on some days might not be full. That’s not the case now. The boards are full and being updated because of so many flights. Terreri says part of it is the Micron effect and other developments going on.

Based on the projections and forecasts for the rest of the year, it’s pretty safe to say this year will beat 2019 and become Hancock’s new busiest year in three decades. But that new record may not last long.