I like the new name for the airport, seems much better to name an airport for the father of Canadian civil aviation rather than a politician. James A. Richardson may not have quite managed to navigate the differences between the CP and CN railways enough for Canadian Airways to become the national carrier, but not only did it lay the groundwork for Canada's future in civil aviation, but TCA was started up using aircraft and staff that transferred from Canadian Airways and after Richardson's death the rest of Canadian Airways was sold to CP and went into the formation of Canadian Pacific Airlines. (There's a book by Shirley Render about James Richardson and Canadian Airways, if anyone's interested in that kind of stuff).
Quote:
Originally Posted by G.S MTL
what are passenger statistics at winnipeg international and the aircraft movements? anyone?
|
According to the WAA webpage last years traffic was 3,227,447. The running 12 month total would be 3,351,191 from Nov.05 through Oct.06. The 2006 traffic count should finish somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,338,000. Hopefully 3,500,000 for 2007.
I'd love to see more overseas service to YWG, even a second weekly flight on Zoom to LGW would go a long way to making that a more viable option for a bigger portion of the market.
That said, I think I'd pick a couple of other markets as more ripe for development right now. The new SLC route is kind of an odd fit for the YWG market, but we'll see how it does (starts in January). An EMB-170 flight to LAX operated by United or AC would be better - a reasonable originating/destination passenger market, opens up new connecting opportunities, and a good chance at generating new traffic. I'd also pick Lethbridge as a very underserved domestic market that could really use some east-west service, and has a fair bit of existing traffic (albeit largely through people driving to YYC). And on the charter front there's potential in the Florida market.