Victoria International Airport numbers leaped to an all-time high in August, reaching a record level not only for that month but for any month in its history.
There was a 7.7 per cent increase in passengers compared with the same month last year — 171,764 versus 159,545 for August 2013, which was the previous record-setting month.
Every month of this year so far has seen a higher passenger count than the same month last year.
The airport handled 1.556 million passengers in 2013.
Modest growth of two and a half to three per cent had been expected in August, Geoff Dickson, Victoria Airport Authority president and chief executive officer, said from Winnipeg on Thursday.
“Being up in the seven-to-eight per cent [range] puts us in the upper echelon of airports across the country, in terms of overall growth,” he said. July’s passenger numbers rose eight per cent year-over-year. August is historically the month with the highest passenger numbers.
High passenger numbers in August resulted from a seven per cent increase for flights within Canada and a rise of 14 per cent among U.S. flights, Dickson said. “The biggest contributor to the U.S. increase was WestJet introducing year-round Las Vegas service this year, operating through the summers,” he said.
The latest passenger data is “just really a great sign of what we hope is continuing strengthening of the economy and perhaps an overall return of some vibrancy in the inbound tourist market for Victoria,” he said.
Dickson was in Winnipeg attending the Maximum Velocity II: Destination Canada conference, where delegates are meeting to come up with ways to increase tourism to Canada.
“Canada’s ranking as an international destination has declined from eighth most-visited nation in 2000 to 16th in 2012,” the event’s website states. Reasons and solutions are complex but it is clear that “Canada has not kept pace with global travel in terms of retention or growth.
“The cost in lost jobs and revenue has had an impact in every province,” the site stated.
Tourism Victoria pegs the annual value of tourism in the region at $1.8 billion, making it one of the pillars of the local economy. Many visitors arrive via the airport.
Airport officials are constantly knocking at the doors of carriers to try to persuade them to bring more flights to Victoria..
Set up originally as a site for military flights close to 75 years ago, the airport today is run by the non-profit Airport Authority with the responsibility for facility improvements. A $7-million runway repaving project was completed this summer.
As well, “we are in the midst of completing a significant redesign of the terminal where we have added capacity and seating overall in the area behind security,” Dickson said. “We have changed the flow through the building to accommodate the growth. We have expanded the retail and food offerings to deal with the growth.”
Part of the authority’s master planning process means always looking at incremental improvements, he said. The next major project is to start next year to expand the apron outside the terminal to create more capacity for overnight parking for airplanes. It will cost about $9 million during a staged five-year construction period.
