Edmonton has what can best be described as a Goldilocks airport situation: one too close, one too far, neither just right. Locals\u2019 dissatisfaction with the airports is never far from the surface, but it boiled over recently when a city councillor raised the issue of what to do about the City Centre Airport.
The municipal airport was the original air terminal in the city and has a storied history as the \u201cgateway to the North.\u201d But the \u201cMuni\u201d was built in, and for, a much smaller city. Homes and highways long ago had it completely surrounded. So, it could never be expanded to handle today\u2019s jumbo jets, let alone the parking, security and other trappings that attend an international airport. It also had detractors in the city as a result of the noise it created and the limitations it placed on building heights.
So, in 1955, Transport Canada chose a site for a new international airport. It shouldn\u2019t have been too hard; Edmonton sits in the middle of pancake-flat prairie. But in their wisdom, the feds acquired a site near the town of Leduc, which even today lies well beyond the farthest suburbs, a full 45-minute drive (with no traffic) from downtown. That would be 45 minutes on the way to Calgary, which means that a great many passengers just stay on the highway and instead fly from Calgary International, which enjoys more direct and usually cheaper flights to more destinations. Indeed, Calgary International has become Alberta\u2019s airport, serving some 12 million passengers a year.
Edmonton Airports, the non-profit authority running both Edmonton International and the Muni, proudly points out that having last year boasted more than six million passengers, the International was Canada\u2019s fastest-growing major airport. But you have to expect that when you\u2019re the staging area for the world\u2019s largest cluster of capital projects, not to mention the continued absorption of the Muni\u2019s traffic.
Which brings us back to what happened when Tony Caterina called on his fellow councillors in September to consider again the issue of the City Centre Airport\u2019s future. Owned by the city, it has not been a well-utilized asset for some time. Following a 1995 plebiscite in which 77% of voters chose to consolidate commercial flights at the International, the city restricted scheduled flights at the Muni to those serving northern communities, which effectively undermines the time savings for flying (as opposed to driving) between Edmonton and Calgary. The No. 1 reason Edmontonians might visit the Muni these days is to attend the IndyCar race held there in July.
By contrast, a report released in June indicates the city could reap $500 million by selling the 217 hectares for residential development and generate an additional $95 million a year in property taxes. There are other ideas for redeveloping the site, too, from expanding the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology next door to staging a World\u2019s Fair in 2017. Shutting down the Muni would also spark development in adjacent, neglected neighbourhoods currently constrained by building heights.
Still, there was a hue and cry from stakeholders. It would be a blow to major companies operating in the oilsands that still use it for charters, not to mention patients from northern communities who use it as their lifeline to Edmonton\u2019s hospitals. You don\u2019t want to be flying through the International when every second counts.
So, what\u2019s the solution? The decision to locate the International halfway to Red Deer is one from which Edmontonians must move on. Yes, the Muni should be closed. It is simply not the best use of a huge swath of urban real estate. But that decision must be combined with a plan to improve access to other airports \u2014 an extension to the LRT (light rail transit) system or the long-discussed bullet train between Calgary and Edmonton. Of course, that would require co-ordination between three levels of government, the absence of which engendered Edmonton\u2019s air transportation pickle in the first place.\tIE<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Poorly placed and serviced airports are cramping Edmonton\u2019s style and could hinder growth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3013,3014],"tags":[2552],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322987"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370829,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322987\/revisions\/370829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322987"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=322987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}