Victoria Airport Authority (VAA) is undertaking an investment $19.4 million dollars over the next 20 months to expand the lower passenger departure lounge.
The project includes doubling the size of the existing lower passenger departure lounge, providing dedicated aircraft gates and covered walkways, new washrooms and additional food & beverage and retail.
Victoria International Airport (YYJ) saw another record year in 2017 with 1,934,832 passengers, up 4.2% over 2016. In response to this strong passenger growth and the use of larger aircraft in existing markets, construction of a 1765 m2 addition to the lower passenger departure lounge is set to begin.
“The upsizing of aircraft from 30-50 seat Dash-8’s to 76-80 seat Q400’s combined with passenger growth has driven the need to expand our lower passenger departures lounge. This is part of a multi-phase terminal and apron expansion plan. The need to improve safety on the main aircraft apron and create efficiencies for passengers entering and exiting the passenger departure lounge, resulted in the airport recently completing an apron expansion that now accommodates the physical space required to expand the glass departure building north and eliminate the existing covered walkway. These improvements will not only improve overall safety and operations but will also enhance the airport experience for our customers by providing additional seating, new accessibility considerations and enhanced concessions.
The Offices of McFarlane Biggar (OMB) Architects in Vancouver was selected to lead the design team and Victoria based Durwest Construction Management (DCM) will manage the project.
About Victoria International Airport
Victoria International Airport (Airport Code: YYJ) is the 10th busiest airport in Canada with over 1.93 million passengers per year. Victoria is well served with more than 100 daily flights throughout North America. YYJ was rated among one of the top ten most-loved airports in the world by CNN Travel and was twice named ‘Best Regional Airport in North America’ by Airports Council Internationa