Passenger numbers are climbing to new heights at the Nanaimo Airport, but it’s not enough for airport officials to count travellers. They want to know more about where they’re going.
Last year’s record was already broken by the end of last month. The 205-thousand passengers in and out of the airport so far this year is 20-thousand more than all of 2012.
President Mike Hooper says it’s an upward trend they’ve been seeing for the last three years. “Having both Air Canada Express and WestJet Encore servicing the communities out of Nanaimo has really increased our numbers,” Hooper explains. “The Nanaimo Airport has worked hard as a team during the past seven years to increase the services from the airport to the communities that we serve.”
He says they’re also working on gathering data on where people are flying with help from 18 volunteers who are part of their Blue Navigators team. They have been helping people find their way around the airport for the last 14 months, and now they’re asking questions and recording the information on iPads.
“As we go forward, we’ll work with our carriers to provide service to additional destinations in western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. The data the Blue Navigators collect helps us understand where people want to travel to,” Hooper says.
