Halifax airport ends 2013 with bang, passenger records set for October through December
A record- breaking fourth quarter helped propel the Halifax Stanfield International Airport to its thirdbusiest year on record in 2013. Though passenger numbers were slightly down overall, the Halifax International Airport Authority vicepresident of air service marketing and development said the addition of some southbound flights late in the year helped post new records in October, November and December. “Typically the winter program for sun seekers in the Halifax market doesn’t start until January and really comes into full play by mid- February and March,” said Jerry Staples Thursday. “This year, we saw Cancun and Florida being offered. Cancun was in November and then Florida was added in December.” Canadian domestic traffic dropped by 0.3 per cent for the year, compared to 2012, while transborder traffic fell by 0.6 per cent. Staples said that was caused by an overall reduction in capacity throughout the airline industry. “To put it in simple terms, they’ve taken … seats and or frequencies of flights out of the markets,” he said, adding the measure affected airports throughout North America. “So they’ve really got their load factors up, improved their efficiencies and part of the process has been, some of the carriers have reduced the number of seats in different markets, including Halifax.” Airlines are now beginning to restore capacity, and Staples said there are several additions to Halifax Stanfield that should support further growth in 2014, such as Air Canada’s maintaining its non- stop to London Heathrow throughout the winter. “Winter typically is not as busy, so people that wanted to go or had to go … were having to connect over U. S. airports or Montreal- Toronto,” he said. “This winter they’ve been able to do it on that non- stop flight of Air Canada’s to Heathrow, which is a huge bonus.” An average of more than 170 flights came through the airport every day in 2013 , flying to a total of 45 non- stop destinations.