Vancouver’s airport is already the best in the world.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement–$5.6 billion worth, to be precise.
YVR announced an ambitious expansion yesterday that will span 20 years and accommodate an additional 10 million annual passengers as the air traffic continues to grow. The airport currently serves around 22 million passengers a year, making it the second busiest hub in Canada after Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
“It is our vision of the future to become a sustainable gateway between the Americas and Asia,” said Craig Richmond, president and chief executive officer of Vancouver Airport Authority.
The airport will welcome bigger planes on its runways while the number of flights will stay around the same.
So, where’s all that money going?
Details of the plan include an incremental expansion of the terminal, upgrading roads and bridges to Sea Island, the construction of a new taxiway (but not a new runway), and building a new geothermal plant.
Funding for the project, which includes around 80 major initiatives, will come mainly from the airport-improvement fees passengers have been contributing to over the past two decades.
No government funding will contribute to the expansion, which is part of the city’s YVR 2037 Master Plan to replace Toronto as the Centre of the Universe.
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