[溫哥華本地新聞] Hike in Vancouver airport fee to help pay for $1.8-billion expansion increase, outside, within

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Hike in Vancouver airport fee to help pay for $1.8-billion expansion

Fee will rise from $15 to $20 as part of a 10-year improvement strategy

VANCOUVER -- The airport improvement fee at Vancouver International Airport will increase by $5 in May to help pay for a 10-year, $1.8-billion improvement strategy announced Wednesday.
The increase to $20 from $15, which takes effect May 1, will apply to passengers travelling to destinations outside of B.C.
Passengers travelling within B.C. and Yukon will continue to pay $5.
The improvement strategy will make it easier and faster for passengers and their baggage to move through the airport and help YVR in the face of increasing competition from other airports, Vancouver Airport Authority president and CEO Larry Berg said Wednesday.
“We think this will attract considerably more Asia-Pacific traffic,” he said. “The airlines concur with what we’re doing and the benefit to them.”
He said YVR wants to be the gateway of choice, particularly for the fast-growing Asian market, with demand for air travel in China growing by seven per cent annually.
The new projects in the strategy include more than 700 metres of secure corridors and moving walkways to reduce connection times for passengers, new high-speed baggage systems, upgrades to the original areas of the 1968 domestic terminal building, and runway safety enhancements.
Under the new strategy, $286.4 million will go toward “airside” projects (including runways and taxiways); $488.7 million for domestic terminal building upgrades; $408 million for international terminal building upgrades; and $559.8 million for Sea Island and airport infrastructure upgrades (bridges, roads and dikes).
Berg said it’s anticipated that due to expected new regulations, YVR will have to add 150 to 300 metres of pavement at each end of its runways to ensure adequate safety areas for long lands.
He said Vancouver’s airport improvement fee will remain among the lowest in Canada, with other major airports, including Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, collecting $25 per passenger.
Berg couldn’t say when the fee will be terminated, even though a former YVR president and CEO predicted in 1996 that it would end in 2002.

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“We always said the fee was attached to this project, so once enough people go through the turnstiles to pay for the terminal and runway and retire the debt, then that fee is history,” David Emerson said at the time. “To be on the safe side, I would estimate that to be somewhere in the neighbourhood of six years.”

However, Berg said there were misconceptions about the fee and that the airport has required $2 billion in improvements over the past two decades. “The airport is in constant expansion.”

He said the fee, which has paid for about 50 per cent of YVR’s capital improvements over the years, will continue to pay for about half of future improvements and that every penny collected from it goes toward the airport.

He said the decision to raise the fee was made by YVR’s board of directors and noted the last increase was in 2004.

YVR said that since the airport improvement fee was introduced in 1993, it has helped build a new international terminal, a new runway, roads and bridges, airfield safety improvements and the Sea Island portion of the Canada Line.

YVR said the additional flights it expects by 2020 will add $200 million to B.C.’s economy.

It said that every new, daily international flight at YVR generates between 150 and 200 jobs at the airport servicing the plane, its passengers and cargo.

YVR said that as Canada’s second busiest airport, it served 17 million passengers in 2011 and handled more than 296,000 aircraft landings and takeoffs.

The airport authority said it employs more than 23,600 people and in 2010 contributed $1.9 billion to Canada’s economy.

Meanwhile, B.C. Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Blair Lekstrom said in a statement that YVR’s plan is evidence of the value of the government’s Pacific Gateway partnership with business.

“This investment will further our vision of creating an aviation hub for Asia right here in Vancouver.”

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http://www.vancouversun.com/trav ... /6051326/story.html
The Airport Improvement Fee (AIF) at Vancouver International Airport will increase by $5 in May to help pay for a 10-year $1.8-billion improvement strategy.