Routes and Airports Channel

YVR upgrading terminal, processing in time for Winter Olympics

By Adele C. Schwartz
ATW's Airports Today, June, 2009, p.3

Vancouver International will open C$100 million ($91.9 million) worth of new C-Pier gates in July and a C$50 million apron and taxiway are being built for these gates, part of the airport's $1.4 billion, 10-year capital improvement plan that includes many projects designed to ease travel for the tens of thousands of visitors expected for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The new gates, to be used primarily by Air Canada, are included in the C$150 million upgrade and expansion of the domestic terminal, which will be completed in 2013. Other new facilities already available there include a sterile corridor for connecting passengers, expanded retail and dining space and more room for baggage screening.

A C$30 million baggage system in the link building between the domestic and international terminals, as well as an C$8.6 million domestic baggage expansion, were completed in the spring. The second, C$20 million phase of the link building will be finished in the next few months.

Earlier, the airport opened a C$199.4 million west international wing. Passenger services in the international terminal are being upgraded with new services including visual paging and phone translation.

The C$300 million airport portion of the Canada Line rapid transit rail line between YVR, Vancouver and Richmond will open in September. Some C$55 million worth of improvements to airport roads and parking will be finished in 2011.

Early this year, an automated border clearance service for returning Canadian citizens and permanent residents was activated at Vancouver, permitting them to use self-serve kiosks to identify themselves. In the international terminal, arrivals clearance, pre-board screening and baggage claim space are being increased.

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