Airport passenger traffic hits record

Passenger traffic at the Edmonton International Airport hit record numbers in May, with almost 598,000 patrons passing through the airport doors last month.

That’s up 4.2 per cent from May 2013, when passenger traffic was 449,494.

The airport added three new flights in the last 12 months to major hubs in New York, Texas and Iceland, which may have helped boost numbers. “There are a lot more options and people are really taking advantage of that,” said Heather Hamilton, the airport’s director of communications.

Airport hubs such as Dallas, New York City and Reykjavik allow travellers to reach almost any city in the world without having to make more stops. “The addition of those three hubs means there won’t be any more milk runs for you to get where you want to go,” Hamilton said.

Passenger demand is the biggest consideration for an airline when deciding whether to add a new flight at an airport, Hamilton said.

Icelandair had initially planned to run four flights per week to Reykjavik, each with a capacity of 183 passengers. It has since bumped that up to five flights per week. Air Canada, which put its direct flights to London on hold for three months during winter, has returned to daily service for the summer.

The airport wants to see 10 million passengers pass through its doors by 2020. There were almost seven million passengers at EIA in 2013.