Progressive by nature: Edmonton International Airport

About a year ago, in the wake of a brutal recession that may go down as the worst in Alberta history, Maureen McCaw reflected on the role an airport plays in its community.

“An airport is a mirror of its community,” said McCaw, who at the time was chair of the Edmonton International Airport (CYEG) board of directors.

“An airport reflects its region’s personality and helps drive its economy and forward its goals. Arguably, an airport’s biggest job is to maintain a position of economic strength and confidence, regardless of–in spite of–external conditions.”

That was the challenge CYEG faced at the time, just as it does now, as the economy begins to grow again. If any airport is a mirror of its community, it is Edmonton International.

As the city goes, so goes the airport.

“Everything that we do, we do in a very pure sense to create socio-economic benefit for our community,” said Tom Ruth, president and CEO of the Edmonton Regional Airport Authority, which manages CYEG and nearby Villeneuve Airport (CVZL).

Edmonton International is Canada’s fifth-busiest airport and its largest airport by land area, situated on more than 7,000 acres just south of city limits.

More than 7.1 million passengers passed through CYEG last year, a number that does not include statistics for December, which were unavailable at press time.

That’s a significant improvement over 2016 and 2015, which saw a drop in traffic due to a recession driven by low oil prices and devastating wildfires.

Total aircraft movements for 2017 were 134,908–down about 0.5 per cent from the previous year. Villeneuve, a general aviation airport, experienced 60,000 aircraft movements in 2017, roughly on par with 2016.

But with a few exceptions, the story of CYEG is one of exponential growth.

The city’s original airport–opened in 1927 to accommodate a flight school near the downtown core–was an important military airfield during the Second World War, but the city quickly outgrew it.

Transport Canada bought the current airport lands for about $1.5 million, and on Nov. 15, 1960, CYEG opened for passenger service.

During the 1970s and ’80s, the airport handled a second generation of wide-body jets like the Boeing 747 and Lockheed 1011, which flew non-stop to Europe.

Passenger volumes declined between 1983 and 1995, but noise concerns prompted the end of large commercial flights to the downtown airport and consolidation at CYEG.

Within four years of consolidation, 3.8 million passengers were using CYEG, and the numbers have grown remarkably ever since.

Air Canada and WestJet are major tenants, and several smaller Canadian carriers also operate out of the airport, including Jazz Aviation LP, Canadian North and First Air.

Three fixed-based operators (FBOs) offer services: Executive Flight Centre, Signature Flight Support YEG (operated by Aurora Jet Partners), and YEG FBO Services Inc./Shell Aerocentre.

Nav Canada provides air traffic control with a new tower atop the airport’s eight-story Central Tower, which also houses offices for Nav Canada and CYEG staff, as well as the headquarters of Canadian Helicopters.

HNZ Topflight also trains pilots at CYEG in a state-of-the-art Airbus Helicopters flight simulator that is the first of its kind in North America.

Canadian North has an advanced Boeing 737 simulator at CYEG and plans to open a new manufacturing, maintenance, repair and operations facility at the airport this year.

Air cargo is big business at CYEG, with volumes that continued to grow during the economic downturn.

Global logistics leaders FedEx and DHL have significant operations at CYEG, along with Canada’s largest cargo airline, Cargojet.

While air service is the most important aspect of CYEG, commercial development is also critical to its goal of creating a so-called “airport city.”

A 585,000-square-foot shopping mall is slated to open on airport lands in 2018, along with a horse racing facility that is expected to be the second-largest in Canada.

Costco is scheduled to open a 150,000-square-foot facility on the west side of the mall in 2018, and Aurora Cannabis is building a massive 807,000-square-foot marijuana greenhouse and processing plant on airport lands.

All this is part of a deliberate effort to think outside the box when it comes to generating revenue and fulfilling the airport’s mission to be an economic driver.

“We are arguably the most progressive airport in North America right now in terms of the pace of commercial development,” said Ruth.

As the economy rebounds, the airport is expected to grow again, with a goal of reaching 10 million passengers by 2025.

It’s expected a third runway will eventually be needed, and the airport hopes to become a destination as well as a waypoint.

“I really do think we need to be a reflection of the community,” said Ruth. “[We] need to be a huge community asset in order to help our region thrive.”