Vancouver International Airport (YVR)

Passengers in good spirits on Vancouver airport's busiest day

Olympic Passengers Depart on March 1st

Passengers departing from Vancouver International Airport were in good spirits Monday and had few complaints, despite it being the busiest day in the airport's history.

Up to 39,000 passengers and 77,000 pieces of luggage departed YVR Monday, the day after the Winter Olympics' closing ceremony.

Those figures smashed the previous record set on a busy day in August 2008, when 26,000 people and 30,000 pieces of luggage departed YVR.

"This is what we expected," said Rebecca Catley, director of communications for YVR. "It's busy, but everybody's in a great mood."

Airport officials began preparing for Olympic-time travel as soon as Vancouver won the bid in 2003 and ramped up efforts in recent years, according to Catley.

"We spoke to other Olympic airports," she said. "We talked to Sydney, Salt Lake City, Athens and Torino. We knew that this was going to be big, so we were planning for it."

To accommodate about 6,500 athletes and team officials -- many with five or six pieces of baggage, much of it oversized -- YVR designed its own oversized baggage carts.

It also set up full-service check-in kiosks at both the Vancouver and Whistler Olympic villages, where athletes and Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee clients were able to check in, print boarding passes and check baggage up to 24 hours in advance.

"It's the first time that a fully automated, complete system has been available in an Olympic village," Catley said.

Airport officials advised passengers departing Vancouver to check the status of their flights five hours before takeoff and arrive four hours early.

Passenger Corey Parson arrived the recommended four hours before departure.

"I definitely haven't arrived this early before, but it's not so bad," said Parson. "It could be worse. This is what I expected."

Trenton Winslow arrived two and a half hours before his scheduled departure to San Francisco.

"I'd heard some rumours about having to arrive four hours early, but I thought it seemed a bit ridiculous," he said. "This is much better than expected, for sure."

Adam Herdos arrived three hours early for his flight home to Calgary.

"This is not too bad at all," he said. "At Christmas time it was a lot busier than this. This is very well organized."

Vanoc CEO John Furlong was on-site to commend airport staff and other Olympic workers and volunteers for their hard work.

"This is a major worry, at the end of the Games, that we get everyone out on time, but we've already moved thousands and thousands of people," Furlong said shortly before noon.

Furlong added that Canada winning gold in men's hockey was one of his favourite Olympic moments.

"It was like a made-up novel," he said. "It was great not so much because we won a gold medal -- and we won the 14th gold medal and had the world record -- but that we gave Canada what it wanted.

"We came out of a room after it happened and there was a television screen and it had a sea of people as far down the street as you can see. I was thinking, 'What street is that?' but it wasn't Vancouver; it was Toronto. It was happening all over Canada."

An estimated 230,000 more people are expected to travel through YVR during the first quarter of 2010 than in the same period last year.

On the day before the opening ceremony, more than 160 corporate aircraft took off or landed, compared with 60 to 70 on an average day at YVR.

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

• Back
• Posted 04/03/2010