VANCOUVER — The Vancouver International Airport terminal will reach full capacity in about five years, according to projections, and officials say 2016 will play a big role in determining how the facilities are expanded to meet demand.
The Vancouver Airport Authority said it will decide by the second quarter of 2016 how the passenger terminal will be expanded to increase its capacity from the current 25 million passengers annually.
The three options being explored include a westward expansion that includes a satellite terminal connected to the main terminal by a tunnel, a centralized expansion model and an eastward one.
YVR president and CEO Craig Richmond said a management team will be researching costs, environmental feasibility, effects on passengers, air-side logistics and other factors in the next four months before presenting a recommendation to the board. Richmond noted it is crucial for YVR to stay ahead of the passenger growth curve to stay competitive.
“Because we don’t have a 10-million-person city, we have to be more nimble, and we have to be more aware what customers want,” he said.
“We don’t want to get to a place where we are overcrowded, because — let’s say you are flying through here from Shanghai to Dallas — you could choose somewhere else [to connect] pretty quickly if you thought we were overcrowded.”
YVR is projected to welcome 20 million passengers this year, a five-million increase since 1998. During the same period, the airport reduced the number of takeoffs and landings by 50,000 annually by attracting larger, more efficient aircraft. As such, Richmond said the airport will not be looking at a new runway “anytime soon.”
However, airport officials said a terminal expansion will likely require some new taxiways to reduce the travel time of planes between the gates and the runways. Richmond also said YVR is looking to engage transit authorities to enhance ground transportation to and from the airport, since an expanded terminal would bring more passengers, who in turn will increase the traffic burden on existing Metro Vancouver roads, rail, and bridges.
Regardless of terminal design, the construction will likely take place within the next two years, in a incremental fashion to avoid being caught in an economic/traffic downturn mid-process, he said.
Major airports in Western Canada have been undergoing expansions, the most notable of which is the new international terminal at Calgary International Airport, to be completed in 2016.
