Major renovation about to take flight at Ottawa airport
Mohammed Adam, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: November 12, 2018
Big changes are coming to the Ottawa international airport, with a $25-million renovation inside the terminal that will see a new and expanded food court and retail space, and the relocation of passenger screening to the third floor of the building.
It’s all part of a major, five-year airport transformation that includes a new hotel and a $20-million LRT station. The overall project cost is estimated at $45 million over the next five years.
The work, to be done in phases, will begin next spring with the construction of the enlarged food/retail court and screening facility, which will take 18 months to two years to complete. Airport president and CEO Mark Laroche says successful bids for the new concessions will be revealed next month, followed by contract awards in the spring. Work is to start right after.
The airport also has identified a hotel operator and negotiations are expected to be completed in time for that announcement early in the new year.
Currently, passengers check in luggage with their respective airlines on the third floor, then take an escalator or stairs to the screening area one floor below. Under the new plan, all the restaurants and eateries now on the third floor would be removed to make room for the new security screening facility. The idea is to locate both baggage check-in and security screening on the same floor to improve both security and passenger comfort.
The new food/retail court would be located on a reconfigured second floor, beyond the screening facility (though some food outlets will still be available to non-travellers). Once passengers check in and go through screening, they would go one floor down to sample the expanded food court’s different menus.
“Everywhere you see a restaurant or retail in the airport, it is going to change,” says Laroche. With passenger volumes rising – up four per cent to five million flyers this year – Laroche says the airport has to keep up with the growth. Besides, the airport is rated as the top airport for customer service in its class in North America (airports handling between two million and five million passengers a year), and Laroche wants to keep it that way with more improvements. “We value customer experience. Customer experience is in the culture of this airport,” he says.
Completion of the first phase would be followed by the construction of the hotel on the south side of the parking garage attached to the airport. The hotel will be built over the next five years.
Design work on the elevated LRT station at the northern end of the terminal is now underway, and construction is to begin once the city signs the Phase 2 LRT contract, which includes the airport spur. The station is expected to open by 2023.
The Ottawa Airport will be a beehive of construction inside and outside the terminal over the next five years. Laroche says the airport fully understands that once construction starts, disruptions are inevitable. But in an airport where time is of the utmost importance to flyers and airlines alike, a remedial plan is being prepared. For instance, to minimize disruption, security screening won’t be moved from its current location until its new home on the third floor is completed. Still, passengers will no doubt be affected.
“We are building up new areas inside and outside and there’s going to be a lot of disruption. We are going to have to close things and so we are preparing a campaign to keep our customers informed of what’s coming down over the next five years,” he says. “We want to keep everybody happy to make sure they are having the best possible experience within the context of the construction.”
The airport and its ancillary services employ about 5,000 people, contributing more than $2 billion a year to the Ottawa economy. Laroche says the pain of disruption will be worth it once the work is done. “It is going to be an enhanced airport,” he says.
Mohammed Adam is an Ottawa writer.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...ottawa-airport
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