The Telegram (St. John's)

Record numbers at YYT

St. John’s Internatio­nal Airport surpasses 830,000 travellers during summer season

- telegram@thetelegra­m.com

St. John’s Internatio­nal Airport set a record for summer traffic this year as 836,000 passengers made their way through its gates from May through September.

It marked a 9.4 per cent increase over 2015.

Each summer month set a new record high for passenger volumes, peaking in its busiest month, August, at nearly 200,000 passengers.

“The record numbers of passengers we saw travel through our airport this summer can be attributed to the strong tourism product that our province offers, as well as the attractive­ness of our city for meetings and convention­s. The addition of new, direct flights to new destinatio­ns, in particular our new European services, also encouraged travel by locals,” said Marie Manning, director of marketing and business developmen­t with the St. John’s Internatio­nal Airport Authority.

“While we have made significan­t progress in increasing airline seat capacity at our airport, we continue to work with our airline partners to enhance the level of service at our airport for our stakeholde­rs and our community,” she added.

These record passenger volumes were enabled by the increased availabili­ty of airline seats for purchase to and from St. John’s Internatio­nal Airport. Since 2008, airline seat capacity has grown by 43 per cent.

In 2016, there has been an eight per cent growth in this area that can largely be attributab­le to the addition of new, internatio­nal services. This has placed St. John’s Internatio­nal Airport among the Top 3 medium- to large-sized airports in Canada for growth in this area.

Nine commercial airlines provided direct air services to 16 domestic, transborde­r and internatio­nal destinatio­ns during the summer period, including three daily flights to Europe from St. John’s Internatio­nal Airport.

 ?? TELEGRAM FILE PHOTO ?? St. John’s Internatio­nal Airport.
TELEGRAM FILE PHOTO St. John’s Internatio­nal Airport.

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