WAA says passenger volume up

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/10/2010 (5734 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More Manitobans are taking to the skies, with some heading south and others hopping aboard new flights to Iceland, Winnipeg Airports Authority said Wednesday.

The WAA said passenger volumes were up 0.5 per cent in the third quarter of this year, which is a continuation of an upward trend that began in May.

President and CEO Barry Rempel attributed the higher passenger volumes to a combination of increased travel between Canada and the United States, which was up by just over three per cent, and about 4,500 people taking advantage of the new Iceland Express flights that were launched earlier this year.

He said while the increase in passenger traffic was modest, the important thing is that volumes are rising.

“I’m thinking this is pretty good news from where we’ve been,” he said, noting volumes were down over the first four months of the year. “I think people are starting to feel a little more comfortable about where they are (financially).” Another encouraging trend was a 14 per cent increase in cargo traffic during the third quarter. That left cargo volumes running seven per cent ahead of last year’s pace after the first nine months of 2010.

“We’ve had some good success there,” Rempel said, noting cargo traffic continued to increase even during last year’s global recession.

The higher traffic volumes helped boost revenues for the quarter by 2.2 per cent to $20.6 million.

However, that was offset by a 4.6 per cent jump in operating costs, which climbed to $8.6 million. And that reduced the WAA’s third-quarter profit to $8.8 million from $10.5 million in the same period a year earlier.

Rempel said the new airport-terminal project accounted for most of the increased operating costs.

He said the project is still proceeding well.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca