YEG - Edmonton Int Airport

[rapid_business]

Any letters make it to the journal yet? I've yet to write mine.

[Jasper and one o nin]

http://www.nadc.gov.ab.ca/seminars/CN-CAANA.pdf
If these clowns ever decide to play hardball then they'll be burried. What's the city/eaa waiting for, just do it now?

[Jasper and one o nin]

I was having drinks with an engineer who is well known in the area. We got talking about the City. In the fifties, Edmonton was poised to become the oil capital of canada. many of the major companies had offices here. When the sixties came and oil companies were becoming very serious about alberta - one of the key reasons the HO's went to calgary is there were too many restrictions for building in downtown Edmonton - specifically building height created by the muni.
So... seems to me that the time would be right to do something now and, as a minimum, close one runway!!!

[Coldrsx]

^one of many reasons.....but Calgary things going for it as well.

[Jasper and one o nin]

yeah, but at the time - it made lots of sense to be in Edmonton. Government, location (in terms of close to the resource), University, manpower, etc.. The major hurdle was the red tape and restrictions

[ExcaliburKid]

The muni is Edmontons achilles heel. Its got great history, but should have been shut down the minute YEG opened its doors

[Edmonchuck]

Originally Posted by newfangled

That's the part that I don't understand. Removing 12/30 will be the nail in the coffin, but removing all the passenger facilities wasn't?

It was, but the fact that everything else is still there and intact (you conceivably could have YXD up and running again in a year) gives people hope. Terminals are just garages with seats....especially non-international ones.

[Jasper and one o nin]

Muni’s glory days are past. Get over it
Re: “Muni has a larger role to play,” Letters, Nov. 23.


Friday’s letters on the City Centre Airport reek of special interest groups that can’t even get their facts straight.


Let’s start with the notion that air service was better when the Muni was open. One must remember that in the past, the federal government subsidized airline service to markets that could not sustain routes. Once the air industry was deregulated, Edmonton’s split service soon succumbed to flight cancellations many years before consolidation.


Comparisons to multiple airports in Toronto and Vancouver are inapplicable. We have a smaller population base than either city and both have major airports serving tens of millions of passengers as hubs. Furthermore, when Denver was considering its options, Edmonton was cited in reports as an example of how divided service is detrimental.


Finally, bringing up drive time to the International is useless unless the only airport one wants to compare us to is Calgary. Whether it be Toronto, Vancouver, Denver, Chicago, or any other city, a travel time of 30 to 40 minutes, depending on traffic, is not bad at all.


It’s time we move on. The whining forces of the Muni memorial movement are doing nothing but securing its fate. It is time to blow the thing up and stop shooting ourselves in the foot.


The International Airport is growing, we are finally ceasing to be a feeder to Calgary, and things are getting better.


Edmonton is on the verge of being a truly great city and it is time for people to focus on what is best for the city and not sabotage us all for a few personal business interests.

[Jasper and one o nin]

Close the entire airport
Edmonton needs to take steps to reform its image and fix its infrastructure problems. Todd Babiak was right on the mark in his column (“Inspiring designs offer hope: If Edmonton wants to shed its ugly image, we need more risktakers,” Nov. 18), in which he stated that Edmonton suffers from poor planning.


The issue of keeping the City Centre Airport open is an example of this poor planning.


How many significant cities have a secondary airport so close to downtown that it affects the construction of highrises and takes up valuable land? Not many. How many cities have an International Airport as difficult to reach from downtown as ours? Also not many.


Mayor Stephen Mandel has said that he wants Edmonton to start thinking big. One idea would be to plan a freeway that links downtown and the International Airport. The current route of Gateway Boulevard/Calgary Trail to the city centre is cumbersome, slow, unsightly, and in need of a major overhaul. Visitors arriving are introduced to the city along an initial unlit stretch of roadway, followed by a commute through many traffic lights and past uninspired industrial buildings. The first impression remains drab and blighted, despite attempts by the city to beautify Gateway Boulevard.


Contrast this to Calgary, where visitors whisk in on the Deerfoot Trail with shiny office towers in view and easy to reach. Calgary’s energy is instantly palpable. If you were scouting out places to set up shop, which locale would you pick?


Promising suggestions have been made to diversify Edmonton’s economy away from its reliance on energy servicing and towards knowledge-based industry. TEC Edmonton, developed to transform innovation into business, is part of the University of Alberta’s Enterprise Square in the old Bay building. One hope is to spin off industry in the downtown area, finally giving us a critical mass of commerce there.


However, the downtown is difficult to reach from the International Airport, making this prospect less feasible. A quick connection between the two would be vital, as such industry would rely on air links to technology centres like Seattle and San Francisco, which the International Airport currently serves on a non-stop basis.


The City Centre Airport is often used as a pawn by the heavily Calgary-weighted provincial government, which prefers the ease of the downtown airport. Since the province currently funds two roads in Calgary (Deerfoot and Stony Trails) and only one in Edmonton (Anthony Henday), it seems only fair that the province fund a second major roadway in Edmonton, namely an International Airport-downtown connector. This would go a long way towards resolving the problematic route into our city.


Perhaps a high-speed rail link along this hypothetical new freeway could be added if we want to think really big and stray from our automobile dependence.

[Jasper and one o nin]

Consolidation a success
I found many of the arguments in last Friday’s letters about the City Centre Airport to be too general or fallacious. In response, I have a few questions: Sure, the growth of the International Airport has benefited Leduc and Nisku. But has it really taken away any growth from Edmonton? How many more people attend conventions or conferences in Edmonton as a result of direct air links with other major centres?


Why do Grande Prairie or Fort McMurray feel hard done by having to fly to the International Airport? Since consolidation, there is more direct scheduled and more affordable air service to these cities. Flights on WestJet or Air Canada last about 52 minutes, compared with one hour and 15 minutes from a private carrier leaving the City Centre Airport.


Whydosome Edmonton travellers still concede that Calgary is the hub for air travel? They will drive to Calgary to “save time and money” rather than flying direct from Edmonton. We are Canada’s fastest-growing airport, with nearly 50per-cent growth in the past two years. We have secured many Canadian, U.S. and international destinations, and will continue to secure more if we support Edmonton’s International Airport. Further, if Edmonton has to provide a downtown airport, perhaps Calgary should do the same for us. The time difference in travel from Edmonton or Calgary to their respective International Airports has been reduced significantly with the gradual opening of the Anthony Henday Drive. It’s about 30 minutes from Sherwood Park.


How many downtown commercial or business projects have been turned down as a result of the height restrictions placed on them because of the neighbouring airport? These office towers would bring in significant tax dollars to our city.


Edmonton’s International Airport has grown significantly, and the city’s economy is starting to diversify. Consolidating air service at the International Airport has resulted in an annual capacity of more than six million passengers — a marked increase from the three million about a decade ago and the $1-billion expansion at the International is another step in the right direction.


The City Centre Airport had its time, but it’s time we look to the future and leave this issue in the past.

[Jasper and one o nin]

International meets needs
I continue to read letters about why Edmonton’s City Centre Airport should be re-opened to regular scheduled air service.


With the International Airport embarking on a billion-dollar expansion that is clearly needed, as seen by the growing passenger count and congestion the terminal, I do not understand how City Centre Airport lobby groups can say that consolodation has failed and the City Centre Airport needs to be reopened to more flights.


Several carriers have seen the benefit of being at the International in terms of being able to carry both business and connecting traffic. The International airport offers several transborder flights. Also it’s traffic continues to soar with the daily service to England’s Heathrow airport and an expanded array of sun destinations.


Hearing people say Calgary is the only “hub” for Alberta is ridiculous.


General aviation and medivac traffic continue to grow at a very rapid pace, displaying the diversity of flights that can be handled at the International.


I see another “hub” on the horizon.

[Jasper and one o nin]

Close one runway
Yes, the International Airport could be closer, and any airport in the centre of a city has many negative effects on the urban development that surrounds it. In a perfect world, we would have one airport somewhere between the two.


The International is the fifth-busiest in the county and traffic is nearly double that of the sixth-busiest airport. There’s a direct scheduled flight to Europe and more direct flights to the U.S. than at any time in history.


Clearly, the International has established itself as a sustainable, self-supporting, successful major airport and there is no doubt the region has benefited.


Consolidating scheduled air traffic at the International was critical to keep Edmonton on the North American map.


Today, the region is poised to become a major international city because of Port Alberta, and its economically beneficial location. Without consolidation, the International would likely have closed because of the inefficiency of having airlines service two airports within a region of one million people. The region likely would not have the investment it does in refineries, medical research, businesses and educational institutions if it had a small commuter airport with limited capacity.


There is only one airport in the region able to handle scheduled air traffic. Let’s deal with it, and move forward.


Neither of the two airports can be moved, but steps can be made to ameliorate the negatives. For starters, let’s think regionally and provide LRT to the terminal.


Close one of the two runways at the City Centre in order to restrict the flight paths over urban areas and, at the same time, loosen the restrictions on downtown development.

[Edmonchuck]

YAY!!!! Good job everyone!

[ExcaliburKid]

^I'll say! Made my morning that much brighter

[tuffyy]

Wow! when they edit your letter it kinda looks like a 5 year old did it....Oh well I made my point.

[Coldrsx]

nice work guys

[CanadianCentaur]

Cool! Nice to see pro-consolidation letters for a change!!

[Edmonchuck]

BTW - contacted the ERAA...they say thank you!

[rapid_business]

I have to ask, who's letter was the "freeway to downtown" one?

Ottawa, EU pursue 'open skies' deal
Bloomberg

November 28, 2007

Canada and the European Union have started negotiating to deregulate transatlantic air travel, a step that would expand competition. The "open skies" talks that began yesterday may lead to a treaty letting European airlines fly to Canada from any airport in the 27-nation EU within a "couple of months," Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon said yesterday. An open skies agreement between the EU and Canada would lower fares and increase the number of air travellers between the two regions, Mr. Cannon said. Canada already has air-travel pacts with 19 of the 27 countries. Current rules require EU-based carriers to serve Canada from their home country.