About 17.3 million people travelled through Calgary International Airport (YYC) in 2018, buoyed by a connecting airport and the growth of e-commerce. The year saw a rise of 6.6 per cent over 2017. It is the airport’s strategy to be the travel hub which has contributed in the still-recovering Calgary economy.
Bob Sartor, airport authority President and CEO said: “And we continue that strategy today. Connections are critical. If you’re not a connecting airport, you’re going to grow at the rate of GDP and we really wanted to grow at a much higher rate. So we have worked really hard at becoming a great connecting airport.”
Replacement of an aging fleet by airlines with larger craft, also helped to increase the number of passengers at Calgary International Airport. For example: WestJet Airline recently added Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The 787 aircrafts can ferry more passengers than the 767 ones as per Sartor. Therefore, routes like London-Gatwick are going to be much bigger and better for YYC because they’ll be able to carry more passengers.
Baggage cargo carried within passenger aircraft has seen steady increases industry wide. A long-term project of expediting the handling of freighter cargo has made YYC the major player of air-bound freight in the province.
