Airport passenger traffic down 2.4%; airport interchange project begins
Victoria International Airport (YYJ) couldn’t maintain the positive passenger growth experienced in September and posted a 2.4% decline in October 2009 over October 2008. 133,379 passengers arrived and departed at YYJ last month, compared to 136,709 at the same time last year.
Year-over-year (up to and including October) traffic is down 1.7% from last year. By this time in 2008, 1,313,689 passengers had flown through YYJ compared to 1,291,888 in 2009.
Air cargo passing through the airport bucked its negative trend and rose by 3.2% over October 2008. However, overall air cargo volume is down nearly 20% so far this year.
McTavish Road / Highway 17 interchange
Construction of the airport interchange has begun. A ceremony was held last week to celebrate the start of the $24-million project that is expected to alleviate congestion at the McTavish Road and Highway 17 intersection and improve safety for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, and benefit public transit operations serving the Saanich Peninsula and the airport. Completion is expected by March 2011.
New destinations
Westjet has added two new destinations from YYJ and has resumed seasonal service of a popular route. Direct service to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and to Honolulu, Hawaii, for the fall and winter sun destination travel market has commenced and service to Las Vegas, which proved popular in 2008, is back.
Long-term parking and access plan
The Victoria Airport Authority recently released a $85-million long-term parking and access plan that outlines anticipated projects aimed at improving access to the airport and facilities available to travelers.
To stay up to date on the latest news and events at the airport, follow the Victoria International Airport thread in the VibrantVictoria.ca forum. To follow the construction activity of the new airport interchange, refer to this thread.
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Responses to this Headline or Article
The five most recent replies to VibrantVictoria.ca's discussion forum's Victoria International Airport (YYJ) thread, the most relevant thread to the above headline or article:
G-Man
Jan 19, 2012 at 9:41 am^ Alaska does the same thing. Just select fare calendar when looking for tickets. You can find days that are discounted 50%. If I were in the bus a Allegiant feeder route from Vic would seem to make sense to me from Vic. I mean we ar doing this from Victoria to Sea and YVR why not to Bellingham. Let alone the fact that Bellingham is a really nice city with some great stuff to do around it.
While I am on it. Why there is not a Sidney to Bellingham Passenger ferry is beyond me as well. We seem to treat one of our closest geographic neighbours as if it does not exist!
AllseeingEye
Jan 19, 2012 at 2:01 pmSome good points here to be sure; on a postive note re: YYJ one nice charter option for those heading to the Mayan particularly, where we're headed also in March, is the CanJet direct flight option to Cancun. Nice not having to dog-leg via Calgary or Edmonton. Also CanJet's departure/arrival times are some of the best in the industry.
Bob Fugger
Jan 19, 2012 at 2:27 pmQuote: In March I am travelling with my sister's family to Oahu. They are driving down from Qualicum, taking the ferry from Nanaimo to Tsawassen and then driving to Seattle the night before ourHawaiian Air flight. (Flights from YVR to HON are much more expensive and don't arrive at convenient times). I had originally planned to fly YYJ - SEA on Horizon , but the quotes on the return flight were going to be more than the cost of a return flight from SEA to Honolulu. This seemed outrageous to me. I will now be taking the ferry from Swartz Bay to Tsawassen and joining my sister's family for their drive to Seattle. 2 nights in an airport hotel before/after the Hawaii flights is substantially cheaper than flying YYJ-SEA return.
You can do Kenmore Air from the Inner Harbour direct to Sea-Tac for less than $300 - in 2 hours. That's half of the Full Flex Horizon fare, plus you don't have to deal with YYJ at all.
Bingo
Jan 19, 2012 at 2:35 pmQuote: You can do Kenmore Air from the Inner Harbour direct to Sea-Tac for less than $300 - in 2 hours.
Seat-Tac was closed earlier this morning due to the freezing rain on the runways.
G-Man
Jan 19, 2012 at 2:43 pmKenmore also accepts Alaska Airmiles and the cost to fly to Seattle is like 10k miles which is pretty good!



