Collins: “As the gateway to and from our province, it is important that we, as an airport, continue to grow to accommodate the increase in demand for travel.”
Serving the province of Newfoundland and Labrador – the easternmost province of Canada – St. John’s International Airport is undertaking a major capital improvement plan to ensure that the airport is well prepared to build on the impressive growth of late.
As well as being rich in natural resources and boasting an expanding oil and gas industry, the province also has an increasing tourism appeal. In fact, in 2011, 500,000 tourists visited the region; roughly the same number as its overall population.
“As the gateway to and from our province, with 80% of non-resident visitors travelling through our airport, we are experiencing the results of our growing economy in our passenger volumes,” explained Collins. “Our capital improvement plan is sized at approximately CAN$200 million (€155m) and the expansion to our airport facilities will enable us to handle the 1.9 million passengers we anticipate will be travelling through our gates by 2020.”
The infrastructure development centres on the doubling in size of the existing passenger terminal to 359,000 sq ft – which will be complete in 2018 – and an expansion to the airfield. As part of the terminal extension, the departure lounge and pre-board screening area will be extended, a supporting area for baggage screening will be enlarged, and three new passenger loading bridges will be installed.
A Category III Instrument Landing System will also be installed on the primary runway. At a cost of CAN$26 million (€20m), it will become operational in 2013, making St. John’s just the third airport in Canada to have this technology.
“The benefits of this technology are significant,” Collins continued. “It will increase the usability of our airport by 5.1%, to an overall usability of 98.9%; it will eliminate our reputation for being inaccessible during a large portion of the year; it will provide a more reliable transportation system, thereby benefiting both the business sector and the tourism industry; and will result in extensive cost savings to both airlines and passengers.”
Elsewhere, the airport is also increasing on-site parking space and constructing a new access road to the terminal building to provide more convenient accessibility.
Passenger satisfaction
The infrastructure development centres on the two-phase expansion of the existing passenger terminal, which will see it doubled in size to 359,000 sq ft by 2018.
As the airport grows, a concerted effort has been made to ensure that the passenger experience does not suffer as a result, and at the start of 2011 St. John’s International Airport began participating in the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Index service. Based on the results from last year, the airport received an impressive overall satisfaction rating of 86% and a rank of seventh in the world for airports handling up to 2 million passengers, 11th for all sized airports in North America, and 45th for all sized airports in the world. “Receiving direct feedback from the people using our facilities is critically important to identify areas of strength and weakness, and being able to make changes quickly,” Collins added. A Passenger Advisory Panel consisting of frequent travellers is also in place to advise on any potential improvements.
As a key part of the supporting infrastructure to the booming regional economy, St. John’s International Airport is actively investing to ensure that it can assist in delivering further growth. Collins concluded: “As the gateway to and from our province, it is important that we, as an airport, continue to grow to accommodate the increase in demand for travel.”
