Edmonton International saw more than 500,000 passengers in January 2012.

Edmonton International Airport released its passenger numbers for January, Thursday, just two days before a major terminal expansion was set to open.

The airport handled 532,549 passengers in January 2012, a whopping 8.7 per cent more than the same month last year.

The increase was led by higher passenger loads to Canada and the United States. 377,652 people departed and arrived from places within the country. Another 103,784 travelled to or from the United States – 11 per cent more than last year. The airport has seen consistent growth in transborder numbers ever since the recession in 2008.

At the same time, more than 51,000 passengers travelled internationally through Edmonton International in January.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The airport authority has spent nearly $700 million on a terminal expansion that will nearly double the number of passenger gates.

Seven new gates in the U.S. departures area open to the public on Saturday. A further six gates have been installed, but need to be connected to the terminal building before they can be used.

A major shopping expansion in the domestic departures area opened to passengers last year with eight new shops and four new restaurants.