By Gary Watson | June 16, 2017 Estimated reading time 2 minutes, 22 seconds.
The new international passenger terminal at Calgary International Airport (YYC) opened in October 2016, but soon had complaints about the sizeable distance between the $2.2 billion expansion and existing domestic gates.
A lengthy walk for many passengers sometimes resulted in missed connections in both terminals. Insufficient seating and the lack of other facilities had annoyed passengers awaiting their flights in the departure lounge of the new facility.
Bob Sartor, president and CEO of the Calgary Airport Authority, has only been on the job for five months and already made changes to the new international terminal addressing many of these issues.
Improvements to passenger movement from one end of the terminal to the other have been addressed as well as passenger facilities in the departure lounge.
Skies caught up with the busy new CEO during the June 15 announcement of Aeromexico’s new direct flight to Mexico City from YYC, and spoke about changes to the infrastructure.
“We can’t change the distances passengers have to travel,” said Sartor. “We are, however, working to improve the overall experience. We are adding more moving sidewalks and adding to the YYC LINK passenger shuttle. Our goal is to have 85 to 95 per cent of the passengers having less than a two-minute wait for a shuttle.
“In the international terminal, we have added more seating, water fountains and water bottle refilling stations. I also work closely with WestJet, our biggest tenant, to identify other areas requiring improvement.”
Additional passenger enhancements are in the works to improve total visitor experience for both Calgary and surrounding area.
“We will be showcasing local areas and attractions to give the traveller a more pleasant experience,” he concluded. “These new improvements will mainly be in digital mediums, including large screen displays and state-of-the-art projections.”
