Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport set a record for June traffic this year as 2,085,293 commercial passengers passed through the airport that month, according to the Maryland Aviation Administration. That total represents an 8.9 percent increase over June 2009.

It was the second-busiest month ever at BWI, falling just short of the record set in August 2001 — the month before 9/11 sent the airline industry into a prolonged slump.

More than half of BWI's June passengers — 1,111,896 — flew on Southwest Airlines, which tallied a 14.9 percent increase over the previous year. Southwest is now making 182 daily departures from BWI, its highest level since it began operations there.

AirTran, BWI's second-busiest carrier, transported 359,810 passengers — a 9.9 percent increase for June.

Meanwhile, Baltimore's airport was ranked among those with the lowest fares in the United States.

The Research and Innovative Technology Administration of the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that BWI, which has an especially high percentage of flights offered by discount carriers such as Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways, ranked 85th among 100 large U.S. airports in average fares during the first quarter of this year at $274.64. The national average was $328.12.

michael.dresser@baltsun.com