Calgary International Airport (IATA: YYC, ICAO: CYYC), branded as YYC Calgary International Airport, is an international airport that serves the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is located approximately 17 km (11 mi) northeast of downtown and covers an area of 21.36 km2 (8.25 sq mi). With 17.96 million passengers and 238,843 aircraft movements in 2019, Calgary International is the busiest airport in Alberta and the fourth-busiest in Canada by both measures. The region's petroleum and tourism industries have helped foster growth at the airport, which has nonstop flights to an array of destinations in North and Central America, Europe, and Asia. Calgary serves as the headquarters for WestJet and is a hub for Air Canada.
Built in the late 1930s, the site has since grown to house four runways, two terminal buildings with 5 concourses for passengers, warehouses for cargo handling, and other infrastructure. The Calgary Airport Authority operates the property while paying rent to the federal government. Close to the airport is the Deerfoot Trail freeway for transport into the city, and public transit also serves the airport.
History
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The first airport to serve Calgary opened in 1914, in the neighbourhood of Bowness. It occupied one square kilometre (0.39 sq mi) and consisted of a hut and a grass runway. Operations shifted to a new airport southwest of the city in 1928, named Old Banff Coach Road Airport. However, issues with turbulence in the area prompted another airfield to be built the following year in Renfrew. This site was known as Calgary Municipal Airport.
As the city of Calgary grew in the area surrounding the Renfrew airport, the city government decided to relocate operations another time. It purchased an area of land north of Calgary in 1938 for about $31,000; this is the site of the current airport. It was named McCall Field after World War I ace and lifelong Calgarian Fred McCall. Equipped with a paved runway, the airport opened on 25 September of the following year, about two weeks after Canada entered World War II. As a result, the federal government assumed control of the site in 1940, repurposing it as a fuel and maintenance stop for aircraft involved in the war effort. Regular passenger flights continued during this period. At the end of the war, the airport had been expanded to include additional hangars and other infrastructure. City officials resumed managing the airport and repurposed the new hangars as a passenger terminal. An improved terminal opened in 1956.
Jet aircraft landed at the airport for the first time in 1961, and flights from Europe commenced the following year. The terminal received five expansions; however, the city government eventually did not have the funds to cope with rising traffic. It proceeded to sell the site to the federal government in 1966 for $2 million. The new owner refurbished the runways and renamed the site "Calgary International Airport". Eleven years later, it constructed a new terminal worth $130 millionâ€"the core of the present facility.
The airport again came under local management in 1992 when the Calgary Airport Authority was formed, although the authority still pays rent to the federal government. Four years later, WestJet began operations with a base at the airport, occupying an expanded area of the terminal. Another runway was inaugurated in 2014, and a new international terminal opened in 2016 at a cost of $1.6 billion, adding 24 gates. "YYC", the IATA code for the Calgary airport, was also affixed to the airport's official name following a successful branding effort.
Infrastructure
Passenger terminals
The Calgary airport houses two terminals, one for domestic operations and the other for international flights. The domestic terminal itself contains three concourses labelled A, B and C; the international terminal is composed of Concourse E for United Statesâ€"bound flights and Concourse D for flights to other countries. Passengers travelling to the United States clear customs and immigration prior to departure at the preclearance facility.
The international terminal operates under a call-to-gate system in which passengers wait in a main seating and shopping area; they then proceed to the gate once flight information is posted. The two terminals are connected by both walkways and a separate path for the YYC Link service. Airport employees transport connecting passengers along this corridor in ten-seat vehicles.
WestJet has criticized the design of the international terminal, which opened in 2016. The airline's CEO stated that the distance between the terminals was too long for connecting travellers and that YYC Link was insufficient to solve this problem. As a result, WestJet had to alter its schedules in order to allow additional time for passengers transiting through Calgary. The Calgary Airport Authority responded that it did not see issues with the connections process, although it said passengers would need some time to adjust to the new facilities.
Runways
The Calgary airport is equipped with four runways with the following dimensions:
- Runway 08/26 is 6,200 ft × 150 ft (1,890 m × 46 m)
- Runway 11/29 is 8,000 ft × 200 ft (2,438 m × 61 m)
- Runway 17R/35L is 12,675 ft × 200 ft (3,863 m × 61 m)
- Runway 17L/35R is 14,000 ft × 200 ft (4,267 m × 61 m)
The longest runway in Canada at the time of its 2014 opening, Runway 17L/35R was built to reduce congestion and better accommodate larger, heavier aircraft: the weight of such aircraft, combined with the low air density resulting from the airport's high elevation and temperatures during the summer, means that a longer runway is necessary for take-off. Runway 17L/35R is also layered with concrete, a material more durable than the asphalt that composes the airport's other three runways.
Cargo
The airport has allotted an extensive amount of area for cargo operations, including over 3,000,000 sq ft (280,000 m2) of warehouse space. Freight airlines such as Cargolux make regular trips to Europe, Asia, and other destinations. In 2017, the Calgary airport handled a total of 147,000 tonnes of cargo.
Other facilities
At 91Â m (299Â ft), the airport's air traffic control tower was the tallest standalone control tower in Canada upon its opening in 2013; compared to the previous tower, it has space for more air traffic controllers and is situated closer to the centre of the airport, giving controllers better views of the airfield. Meanwhile, the headquarters of WestJet and its subsidiary WestJet Encore are located onsite. There are also two hotels on the airport property.
Airlines and destinations
Statistics
In 2019, YYC Calgary International Airport was again the fourth-busiest airport in Canada in terms of the total number of passengers served, which was almost 18 million. This being another record year in passenger volume, surpassing the previous record set in 2018 by 3.54%.
Of the total for 2019, travellers bound for domestic destinations constituted 69.7% of all passenger traffic, while people travelling to the United States amounted to 19.6%, remaining 10.7% was traffic to international destinations, excluding United States.
YYC's cargo operations grew significantly with 155,820 tonnes of cargo moving through the airport, an increase of 6.7% over the previous year.
Passenger traffic
Passenger volumes for the period 2010â€"2019 are provided in the following table:
Cargo traffic
Cargo volumes for the period 2011â€"2019 are provided in the following table:
Top domestic routes
Ground transportation
Deerfoot Trail provides freeway access to the rest of the city. There is also a tunnel beneath Runway 17L/35R that links the east side of the airport site to the terminal buildings. Two parking garages and a rental-car facility are situated across from the terminals. Public transport options are also available at the airport: Buses operated by Calgary Transit link YYC Calgary International to downtown, a nearby station of the local CTrain light-rail network, and other parts of the city.
Notable accidents and incidents
- On August 24, 1963, West Coast Airlines Flight 794, a Fairchild F-27 departing from Spokane International Airport to Calgary via Cranbrook made a crash-landing shortly before the runway. The probable cause of the accident was the pilot failed to maintain the approved minimum altitude on approach. There were no fatalities.
- On March 22, 1984, Pacific Western Airlines Flight 501, a Boeing 737-200, aborted a take-off and exited the runway onto a taxiway after a component of the left engine broke off and hit the fuel stores in the wing, resulting in a fire that spread over the left and back portions of the plane. The flight attendants evacuated all passengers, while some suffered severe injuries, all the occupants survived.
- On July 17, 1990, an Ecuadorian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo (Registration HC-BFH) being ferried to Calgary from Quito, via Billings had the nosegear collapsed following touchdown on runway 28, igniting hydraulic fuel and resulting in the aircraft burning out. There were no fatalities.
See also
- List of the busiest airports in Canada
- List of the busiest airports in North America
References
External links
- Official website
- Past three hours METARs, SPECI and current TAFs for Calgary International Airport from Nav Canada as available.
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