The year 2016 was a record-breaking year for the Victoria International Airport.
YYJ served 1,856,421 passengers at the airport last year. That’s up by 8.5 per cent from the previous record of 1,710,825 in 2015.
Geoff Dickson, president and chief executive officer of the Victoria Airport Authority, credits the growth increase because of “consistently strong growth among our domestic air carriers because of consistently high growth among their domestic air carriers.”
New Delta Air Lines service to Seattle boosted the trans-border passenger numbers, and higher capacity in charters heading to sunny climates during winter increased international traffic.
“The challenge now is to continue to facilitate and enable continued growth through prudent and timely infrastructure investments,” Dickson said.
The airport plans to double the size of the lower departures area to provide more seating and provide better options for food and retail.
Also scheduled for 2017 are improvements to the airport’s secondary runway, identified as 14-32, which includes approach lighting for aircraft and can handle operations of smaller turboprops and jets.
The runway will be resurfaced and grooved, a practice that improves operations during wet weather, and lighting replaced with modern LED variants.
Victoria International Airport is the 10th busiest airport in Canada with more than 100 daily flights throughout North America.
