By Lindsay Hughes | June 9, 2014 Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 19 seconds.
On June 9, the Fort McMurray International Airport (YMM) officially opened the doors to its brand new 15,000-square-metre terminal, designed to accommodate 1.5 million passengers per year. Constructed at a cost of $258-million, the facility is five times the size of the previous building—an expansion befitting YMM’s status as the fastest-growing airport in Canada.
The new terminal includes four aircraft bridges and eight aircraft parking stands, over 2,200 parking stalls with power, valet parking, and 16 brand name retail and food outlets. To celebrate the grand opening, passengers were treated to complimentary coffee from Earls Kitchen and Bar, the first Earls restaurant in a Canadian airport. Other food outlets in the new terminal include Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Burger King, and Subway. For increased passenger comfort, each seat in the new terminal has a power outlet, USB port and a cup holder.
Scott Clements, Fort McMurray Airport Authority president and CEO, was on hand to greet the airport’s first arriving passengers. “From lines on a piece of paper to opening day, it’s pretty exciting,” he said. “It was a pretty complex project, but we got it done and we’re in the new era for air transportation for Fort McMurray. We’ve had such overwhelming growth here; we certainly needed a new terminal, but we decided to build one that would make everybody proud. The first impression of anyone coming to Fort McMurray is usually the airport. I think it will be a dramatic difference in the impression that people have in coming to Fort McMurray using this marvelous new terminal.”
The terminal was one of 11 award winners of the 2013 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence for innovation and design. One of its most unique features is the “Northern Lights Wall,” which draws inspiration from the northern lights and the boreal forest. The wall is the main feature in the entry and arrivals hall, and can be seen by both arriving and departing passengers.
Jessie Meyer, manager of marketing and communications, Fort McMurray Airport Authority, said, “I think the new airport brings new life to Fort McMurray…. It provides a whole new perspective on the region and it allows for investment, for growth; it’s an economic driver in the city as well as in Alberta.”
The next airport project is the construction of a four-star hotel connected to the main terminal building. The hotel is expected to open in 2016.
