Edmonton International Airport

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BLUE SKIES

EDMONTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AIMS TO WELCOME 10 MILLION PASSENGERS BY 2020 It’s an understatement to say that Edmonton is flourishing. Recognizing the hub that the Edmonton International Airport serves, EIA is growing in tandem with its region, driven in part by ties to its base in oil, gas, and oil sands manufacturing and logistics. EIA is drawing more global attention each year, aligning its focus with that of its regional business community and its passengers. And that focus is distinctly forward-looking: EIA is aiming to accommodate 10 million passengers by 2020.

EIA connected seven million passengers to more than 60 destinations throughout North America and overseas in 2013. Numbers for 2014 are encouraging as well, with overall growth at nearly seven per cent and international travel showing 13-per-cent growth, boosted by a 10-per-cent increase in travel to and from the U.S. W W W.FLYEIA .COM

Building on impressive long-term trends, 2014 numbers are bolstered by new non-stop flights to Iceland, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles and Kamloops. Over the last decade, EIA growth reached 70 per cent – a number that leads major airports across Canada.

Continued growth is paramount for Tom Ruth, president and chief executive officer of Edmonton Airports, a not-for-profit organization managing airports in the Edmonton Region. Ruth is six months into the role and has an extensive background in the airport and airline industry.

Serving most recently as president and CEO of the Halifax Stanfield International Airport, he’s also the past chair of the Canadian Airports Council.

Ruth sees Edmonton Airports as more than just the regional overseer of passenger and air cargo operations. “We are driven by our mission to achieve more flights to more places,” he says. “A major focus involves attracting people to our region – for work, for tourism, to study or invest, and the networks that support these activities are much broader than a regional or northern market. Our market is global, so we have to ensure our plans match those of our customers.”

PASSENGER MOBILITY, LOGISTICS POWERHOUSE

WELCOME ABOARD: President and CEO of Edmonton Airports Tom Ruth embarks on a new challenge at EIA’s governing body.

EIA works to keep pace with growth in its region, ensuring its position as an economic facilitator and partner to increasingly globally mobile regional businesses.

“The number of people travelling regionally and internationally has been growing in leaps and bounds, and we need to keep pace in a sustainable way,” Ruth says. “This was the force behind our comprehensive expansion in 2007, a timely investment that ensured we’re ready to serve our growth.”

EIA is increasingly focusing on its specialty services such as business aviation, which serves the mobile workforce. “We’re working to ensure that available infrastructure, amenities and connectivity facilitate streamlined access for our customers,” Ruth says. EIA saw a major upsurge in its business aviation segment in 2013, with an overall increase of 30 per cent to chartered business flights.

Northern Alberta’s travelling workforce uses EIA as a transportation link. In its main terminal and through its specialty business aviation terminals, EIA is a facilitator of labour mobility for Canada’s northern worksites. Case in point: more than 715,000 business aviation passengers, the majority being resource workers, used EIA to commute in 2013, and about 40 per cent of them travel from outside of the region.

Complementing the growth in passengers is EIA’s cargo handling capabilities. The airport’s cargo services have experienced volume growth of more than 23 per cent over the past four years and 8.3 per cent in 2013 – nearly six times the global average of 1.4 per cent.

Growth will continue thanks to the latest enhancements at EIA’s specialized Cargo Village. In addition to a new Canada Border Services EDMONTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Agency [CBSA] facility, the village provides a dedicated cargo apron, air and groundside buildings and additional road and land servicing facilities.

In partnership with Runway Developments, EIA is set to build an additional 30,000-square-foot building to accommodate freight forwarders requiring customized offices and warehouses. EIA has also partnered with Panattoni Development, a global real estate firm, to develop warehouses and logistics areas and other industrial-use facilities. Spanning almost 32 hectares, the facilities will serve freight forwarders and will be custom-built for each tenant.

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PARTNERS IN LABOUR MOBILITY With oil sands investment poised to reach a record $32 billion in 2014, a major ongoing challenge for industry lies in efficient attraction and retention of a commuting workforce.

“EIA is focused on the role it plays moving workers to project sites,” says Tom Ruth, president and CEO of Edmonton Airports.

“Along with our passenger and business aviation partners, we see an excellent opportunity to improve the role we play in the energy value chain.”

More than 715,000 workers moved through EIA’s main and specialty business aviation terminals in 2013, 40 per cent of them commuters from outside the Edmonton Region.

As a result, Edmonton Airports and its partners are attuned to the needs of the industry in terms of safety, security, on-time performance and comfortable transitions.

Some of the best business aviation facilities anywhere in the world are on the EIA site.

The specialty providers include Airco Aircraft Charters, Air North, Canadian North, Central Mountain Air, Det’on Cho Logistics, Enerjet, Executive Flair, Executive Flight Centre, North Cariboo Air, Regional 1 and Sunwest Aviation. Hangar areas, such as the Shell Aerocentre, include shops, offices and passenger lounges all dedicated to charter service clients such as oil and gas and mining specialists.

For those workers arriving or departing through the main terminal, there is the added benefit of more than 60 shops, services and restaurants as well as the new on-site Renaissance Edmonton Airport Hotel that adds extra comfort and convenience.

“EIA provides great service to our energy customers by improving amenities and investing in infrastructure that helps ensure smooth commutes,” Ruth says. “We work closely with our aviation partners to consolidate traffic for energy operators and ensure maximum efficiency at every point of the journey.”

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LOOKING FORWARD

EIA continues to examine how to best align with the region. This includes advancement of its aerotropolis concept, envisioning an environment in which the industries and activities that locate around an airport are looped together into a onestop shop, creating an advantage for customers.

“EIA is working to attract the services that are of most importance to our customers,” Ruth says, citing the example of Cargo Village. It offers a collection of services that appeal to shippers and accommodate warehousing, distribution, logistics and freight forwarding. On the consumer side, EIA has announced a partnership with Ivanhoe Cambridge for a major retail shopping development onsite.

“The aerotropolis model does two important things,” says Ruth. “First, it helps generate revenue that is reinvested into air service and structures.

Second, it increases the airport’s appeal, attracting more people to our region to spend more time and money here. That brings in more passengers and helps us ensure we get to 10 million by 2020.”