Edmonton International Airport Draws More Than 6 Million Passengers Each Year
Edmonton International Airport has been the fastest growing major airport in Canada for the last two years in a row. EIA flew more than 6 million passengers to 53 non-stop destinations in Canada, the United States, Europe and Mexico in 2007.
The dramatic increase in traffic – double-digit passenger growth for the last three years – is impressive by world airport standards, EIA officials say. Driving much of the increase are the international flights out of Edmonton, which rose 85 percent from 2006 to 2007. The rise in international flight traffic is due in large part to the success of Air Canada’s daily non-stop service between Edmonton and London-Heathrow Airport.
Additional non-stop destinations added last year, including expansion of winter service to sunspots in the Caribbean and Mexico, are also driving up airport demand.
To keep up with the boom, EIA is spending $1.1 billion on an airport expansion project that will accommodate 9 million passengers by 2012.
The expansion project will add new gates, build a new passenger concourse and expand parking. It will add new technology to help passengers move through the airport as smoothly as possible. Common-use, self-serve, check-in kiosks will allow customers to access their boarding passes at multiple points throughout the terminal. Passengers will also be able to self-tag baggage and check baggage at any location in the terminal.
A new office-control tower complex will replace a current one built in the 1960s and provide more office space, restaurants and services, and also allow for easier baggage check-in. The expansion project, underpinned by the philosophy of “we’ll move you,” will have additional new technology to make the airport experience easier and more convenient for passengers.
Apart from the expansion program, construction is set to begin on a 200-plus-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel that will be connected by a walkway to the north terminal.
