Airport passenger numbers still growing
By CHUCK CHIANG
Today staff
Tuesday January 22, 2008
If the Fort McMurray Airport seems more crowded than ever these days, it’s because that is exactly what’s happening, according to the latest passenger numbers.
The airport saw 559,059 passengers either board or get off scheduled commercial flights last year, a record high and 34 per cent higher than 2006’s 415,965 figure.
Airport officials said the pace of growth has surprised even them, noting that passenger numbers only reached 106,768 ten years ago.
“We thought we were getting busy when we broke 100,000,” said airport CEO Darryl Wightman. “We were thinking, ‘Woah! That’s pretty cool.’ “
Wightman said some expected numbers to plateau during the last two years, since oilsands giants such as CNRL and Albian Sands have opened private airstrips to serve their mine sites.
“I thought 2005 would be a peak, with the private airports coming in,” Wightman said. “But it doesn’t seem to affect us at all at this point.”
Combined with the roughly 250,000–to–300,000 passengers on chartered flights and one extra person per passenger dropping off or picking up guests at the airport, and officials estimate that 1.6 million people used the terminal last year.
The current terminal is designed to serve 250,000, but Wightman said officials hope construction starts on the planned new facility this spring.
“We’re in the final stages of designing the terminal, and we need a few approvals from the municipality,” he said, noting that the project will be financed through a deal with Royal Bank of Canada. “We hope to send out tender packages in the late winter.”
The project, at an estimated cost of $85 million to $100 million, includes the larger terminal and a new parallel runway next to the current one.
Wightman added, while the airport is handling traffic levels it hasn’t seen before, there could still be opportunities for service expansion with the current facilities.
This could mean that total passenger levels could surpass 1 million in the near future, he said.
“In any presentation we make to the council, we’ll use the title ‘Forward to a million,’” Wightman said. “The (airport) apron isn’t full, and there are some time slots still open, and we continue to work with airlines (to increase service levels).”
He added that he expects a “major” announcement from Air Canada in the near future, but declined to comment further.
Air Canada did not respond to inquiries regarding the announcement.
