Passenger numbers at the Northwest Regional Airport continue to climb, with March’s total of 12,836 easily outpacing February’s 10,595.
When added with January, the first quarter total for 2013 stands at 33,249, substantially higher than the 2012 first quarter total of 29,820.
The airport last year set a record with 139,193 passengers on the strength of an improving economy based on actual developments such as the continuing modernization of Rio Tinto Alcan’s Kitimat aluminum smelter, on-going construction of BC Hydro’s Northwest Transmission Line and the start of construction of the Red Chris copper and gold mine owned by Imperial Metals.
At the same time, the growing number of proposed natural gas pipelines to feed planned liquefied natural gas plants is also causing an increase in traffic.
Air Canada’s regional service is set to increase to five the number of daily Terrace-Vancouver flights for the spring, summer and fall period.