I'm generally an optimist, but I find a drop of more than 5% in 3 years, in a growing city no less, to be a real problem.

Thunder Bay's airport recorded its best year ever, I think they got 680,000 passengers last year.

tourism and business travel is down not that surprising

Here in Regina, YQR posted 2010 passenger stats that showed a 9.6% increase over 2009, and an increase of 16.4% in the past three years.


Here's the full article.

Perhaps the new terminal will help turn those numbers around?

Iqaluit has been trying to restore the flight ever since FA dropped it. When Iqaluit finally gets its new terminal the Customs area will be upgraded as well.They may have more than one agent then.

Thunder Bay's airport is one of the best in Canada.

:tup:

I didn't have time to find and post the article the other day but here it is:

Hopefully they can find the funds to extend both runways to their maximum lengths in a few years, opening up more flight opportunities. The airport's capacity is either 750,000 or 1,000,000 so we should be good for a while. There is space to expand it by simply making the building longer so capacity isn't too much of a concern out of how many places can physically take off and land daily. A plane takes off or lands at YQT on average every 90 seconds. I live under the flight path (though far enough away that noise isn't a concern) and when waiting a few minutes for the bus I usually see no fewer than three planes go by.

The Quebec City airport's $225M expansion plan is officially under way. A first $70M expansion occurred in 2007 but the number of passengers increased so quickly that the airport already functions at almost full capacity. Back in 2003, about 650 000 passengers passed through the airport whereas the number had almost doubled to 1 200 000 in 2010. This increase seems only to be accelerating in the last few years, since the number of passengers ramped up by 14% last year and is well on the way to surpass such a percentage this year. Of course, these numbers are still relatively small considering the size of Quebec City but it is important to remember that historically, Montreal's proximity has always hindered the airport's growth since people didn't mind driving to Montreal's airport because airline companies only operated there. For the same reason, tourists also used to drive between the two cities instead of taking the plane. Since the number of airline companies present at Quebec City airport keeps increasing, a new reality is now emerging: lower ticket costs due to increased competition and more national and international direct flights. For example, Continental Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways and Delta Airlines are now all offering flights to multiple US destinations.

The bulk of the money will be funnelled towards the expansion of the international terminal (it will be 4 times larger), which will basically double the size of the airport. A multi-level parking lot and an hotel are also in the plans. Finally, the service facilities for passengers and airline companies will be improved.

By the way, Jean Lesage International Airport once again won the Airport Service Quality international survey for its category.

Here's what the airport looks at the moment. Renderings of the new terminal should be presented in the coming months.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3122/...3df7798b_z.jpg
Quebec City by Plane par polo200200, sur Flickr

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3265/...9b6_z.jpg?zz=1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djipibi/2593630000/


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3DuHPYp9rX...E/s1600/ar.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitech...n/photostream/

wow I didn't realize how modern and spacious Quebec city's airport was....cool

One thing I've noticed is that most Canadian airports, big and small, are rather modern, well-designed and functional.

Quebec City has an amazing airport. I hope that when Winnipeg's new airport opens, the traffic picks up. It's got to be the only growing city with falling air traffic.

Very nice QC...

The John G. Diefenbaker International Airport in Saskatoon is beginning a 2 year expansion that will almost double its size and increase capacity from 1.4 million passengers annually to 2.2 million.

The Saskatoon Airport Authority has a fantastic fly-through video tour of the expanded and refreshed terminal as well as some 3D renderings: http://www.yxe.ca/reconstruction/tour.php

This is definitely going to class up Saskatoon's airport!

Looks like a beautiful addition to Saskatoon.

Saskatoon's airport is very nice for its size, looking forward to this expansion going ahead.

Here at YYC things are full steam ahead on the parallel runway (plus roadway tunnel underneath), new terminal, and new control tower. Here is a shot of the new control tower starting to head skyward:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6044/...e3022bd9_z.jpg
Lufthansa A343 AIGI by $and$man, on Flickr

:previous:

I think it's really that Lufthansa jet that's heading skyward... :D

Nah, that's an A343. They don't really head skyward as much as let the curvature of the earth fall below them. :haha:

Hair dryers can only provide so much thrust!

You gentlemen seem to know your aircraft. Have any need for an AME Apprentice? :D