August saw the biggest slide in month-over-month passenger volumes at Victoria International Airport (YYJ) as B.C.’s former second-busiest air transport hub struggles to overcome a negative growth trajectory.

 

Despite 2018 being the first year YYJ served two million passengers, 2019 has been plagued with route cancellations, declining passenger counts and a further slide in aircraft movements.

 

191,436 passengers were transported through YYJ’s gates in August, according to figures released by the Victoria Airport Authority. The numbers represent a drop of 10.9% from August of 2018’s record-breaking 214,793 passengers.

 

 

August’s near 11% drop in passenger activity surpassed a 7.3% drop in July which at the time accounted for the sharpest decline in travellers throughout a monthly period in recent years.

 

Overall, throughout the first eight months of the year 1,311,308 individuals have passed through YYJ’s gates, 5% below the same period in 2018.

 

Transborder travel to the United States has been the most affected in 2019 with a 15.6% arrivals and departures drop between January and August, while domestic travel within Canada fell 3.6%. International travel, thus far, is 10.9% above 2018 figures and is expected to continue to outperform the other two markets into 2020.

 

2019 started with the cancellation of a decade-plus service between Victoria and San Francisco International Airport via United Airlines. The US carrier nixed its flights due to insufficient aircraft resources, reportedly, and an intention to prioritize the planes serving YYJ to other routes. United did, however, leave the door open to a potential introduction of a Victoria-Denver connection over the medium-term.

 

Earlier this month Delta Airlines cancelled its jet-serviced flights to Seattle’s SEATAC airport, leaving Alaska Airlines' short-hop feeder subsidiary Horizon Air to maintain Victoria's only connection to the busiest hub in the Cascadia region.

 

Aircraft movements continued their year’s-long slide with an 11.5% drop in landings and takeoffs in August compared to last year. However, the first quarter of 2019 saw a 0.7% increase in movements, albeit it was surpassed by a 1.4% drop in the second quarter. Third quarter results have thus far seen a 25.9% drop in July and August’s near 12% slide.

 

Despite subdued performance, the Victoria Airport Authority (VAA), which oversees YYJ's operations, has a positive outlook over the medium term and has commenced work on yet another phase of much needed terminal improvements.

 

To accommodate approximately two million passengers on an annual basis, the VAA has invested $19.4 million on a 35,000 square foot lower departures area expansion that will double the square footage of the current ground-oriented departures terminal.

 

With a 25% increase in passenger volumes since 2012, the existing terminal has reached capacity while air-side commercial food and beverage providers routinely struggle to serve long queues of departing travellers.

 

Construction is expected to be completed by mid-2020.

 

In addition to terminal improvements, the VAA’s medium-term outlook could yield a 600 foot extension to runway 09-27, which currently spans 7,000 feet. The east-west strip serves as the airport’s main runway and its expansion could commence in 2023 or 2024, according to the VAA’s feedback during a March 5th consultative committee meeting.

 

Citing recent technological advancements as the primary reason behind reduced pressure on extending the runway length in years prior, the VAA board highlighted that modern aircraft can make-do with shorter take-off and landing requirements.

 

"Today's aircraft no longer have range restrictions based on YYJ's runway length. In the past there were weight restrictions on certain aircraft that had to short-load in order to take off. However, modern aircraft are not load restricted on a 7,000 foot runway."

 

Victoria International Airport is British Columbia's third-busiest air hub following Vancouver International and Kelowna International. The latter surpassed YYJ's traffic count for the first time last year despite YYJ welcoming a record-breaking 2.05 million passengers. C

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