By Gary Watson | July 2, 2014 Estimated reading time 2 minutes, 3 seconds.
On June 28 at 14:00 local time, a WestJet 737-700 inbound from St. John’s, N.L., made Canadian aviation history as the first commercial aircraft to land on YYC 35R, officially opening Calgary’s new parallel runway 35R/17L. Appropriately, the jet was WestJet’s first B737-700, line number 001.
Moments later, Air Canada was added to the record book as the first commercial departure, with flight AC9, a B767-300ER taking off en route to Narita, Japan.
Calgary’s new Cat III (a) ILS runway is 14,000 feet in length and the longest in Canada. It has full length inset runway centreline lighting and numerous high speed turnoff taxiways. It is being touted as a vital necessity for increasing long haul international travel, being 1,325 feet longer than the existing 35L/17R runway.
Prior to the opening of the new runway, YYC could handle a maximum of 64 aircraft movements per hour. With a puff of tire smoke from the WestJet B737, those numbers jumped to 88 movements per hour (44 arrivals and 44 departures), an increase of approximately 35 per cent. Within minutes of the inaugural landing and takeoff, there was a steady stream of aircraft using the new runway.
As an interesting side note to the official opening, YYC operations staff opened a hill on the west side of 35R/17L to the local aviation spotters group, who number approximately 400. Once the new terminal construction is complete, this location could become a permanent “Spotters’ Hill” for aviation enthusiasts.
