EIA recovered 92% of pre-pandemic volumes in 2023, on track to make up rest in year or two

Edmonton International Airport is celebrating serving 7.5 million customers in 2023, which represents a 92 per cent recovery of its pre-pandemic traffic volume.

It surpassed a goal set at the start of the year of 7.2 million passengers, growing domestic service by 22 per cent over 2022, and transborder and international traffic by more than 70 per cent.

The airport's president and CEO attributed the latter growth in part to new flights to Frankfurt and Minneapolis, which he said have done well enough that providers are expanding their service.

"Look at Frankfurt, for example. We launched last year. This year, Condor's coming back earlier with a bigger aircraft. Look at KLM with Amsterdam, they've increased frequency and the size of the aircraft," Myron Keehn told CTV News in an interview on Tuesday.

He expects that trend to continue in 2024 as the airport brings on flights to Atlanta, San Francisco and Nashville.

"Atlanta coming on is massive. Atlanta's the world's most connected hub. Over 100 million passengers a year," Keehn said.

"If I'm a business in Edmonton metro region or Canada's north, I can now access Africa out of Atlanta. It gives me options."

In 2023, the airport also became home to a full-time office for Canadian cargo airline Buffalo Airways, which provides a dedicated freighter service.

Previously, flights to northern Canada transported both cargo and travellers, so Keehn called Buffalo's hub a significant development in getting goods to northern communities and exposing northern businesses to new markets.

Altogether, Edmonton International Airport and Villeneuve Airport had an economic output of $4.9 billion in 2023, easily beating 2019's $3.2 billion.

When asked if 2024 would be the year Edmonton International Airport reached 2019 traffic volumes, Keehn said, "We're cautiously optimistic on 2024. I think it'll be 2025, likely."

Also in 2023, Canada's first and only commercial drone route in a controlled airspace launched at Edmonton International Airport, embarking on 1,538 flights for a distance of 4,306 kilometres.

June 30 was the busiest day of the year with about 25,500 passengers.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Evan Kenny