Ottawa airport mulls expansion
Posted May 9, 2012 07:57:56 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA- The Ottawa International Airport is finding it’s success is starting to lead to congestion.
4.6 million passengers passed through the terminal last year which is up 3.4 per cent from 2010. When the Authority took over control of the airport in 1997, 2.2 million passengers flew out of Ottawa.
That is expected to hit 5 million by 2015 which is more than a year ahead of schedule.
Paul Benoit is the C.E.O of the airport and tells 1310News, this is a good news story. “In 2010, we had 1.2 billion dollars in direct economic impact on the region and if you include indirect impact, it’s 2.2 billion dollars”.
He does say the airport would like to add some more gates and try and ease congestion at customs and security.
This won’t be rolled out right away. Benoit says the authority is looking over it’s options and will need to expand prudently. ” Remember we receive no money from any government, we don’t want any, we don’t get any, but you don’t want to overbuild and have to carry on all that capital improvements for 10 or 15 years”.
