The revamped passenger terminal at Greater Moncton, the gateway to Canada’s New Brunswick region, was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Sebastian Schmitz takes a closer look at the airport that boasts the Royal seal of approval.
FEATURE MONCTON
Moncton is the largest city in New Brunswick and its location at the geographic centre of the three Maritime Provinces (Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) has earned it the nickname ‘Hub City’. The Greater Moncton Metropolitan area also includes the cities of Dieppe and Riverview and comprises close to 150,000 inhabitants.
A little over 4 miles (7km) east of central Moncton, in the city of Dieppe, is the Greater Moncton International Airport (YQM/CYQM), the busiest in the province and an important passenger and cargo gateway for the entire region.
The airport has undergone major changes in the last two decades and is now a pleasant and modern facility offering a range of year-round services to major Canadian cities, and a full schedule of flights to winter sun destinations, as well as several cargo links.
Nine decades of history
The first scheduled flight from a small and improvised airstrip outside Moncton took off in January 1928, carrying a load of passengers and mail to the Magdalen Islands, a small archipelago in the Gulf of St Lawrence. Two runways were constructed and the following year the Moncton Aero Club and the International Airways Flying School were set up.
Mail flights were soon added to nearby Prince Edward Island and as far away as Montreal – 426 miles (685km) – but even in these early stages it became evident the airport’s infrastructure would not cope with longer distance flights operated by bigger aircraft. In 1936 a new airport was built closer to the city of Dieppe and soon expanded with the construction of a maintenance hangar.
By the early 1940s passenger and mail flights were being offered to cities in Québec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.
A few years later, as air travel began to increase, a hangar used by Trans-Canada Air Lines (the forerunner of Air Canada) became the temporary location for the airport’s first real passenger terminal, which was soon replaced by a proper passenger building. Over the years, the terminal was upgraded and an international arrivals area added (specifically for the 1999 Francophonie Summit attended by representatives of French-speaking countries around the world).
In 1997, Moncton became the first airport in Atlantic Canada to be privatised and since then has been managed by Vantage Airports (previously known as Vancouver Airport Services).
The group runs other airports in Canada and around the world, including Cyprus, Jamaica and the United States.
With a new company in charge and traffic constantly growing it was decided in May 2001 that a new terminal building was needed to replace the existing facility.
It would be located on the northwestern side of the airport, parallel to the Runway 06/24 and construction got under way in early July 2001. First to be completed was a large apron in front of where the new terminal was being built, and under extraordinary circumstances, it proved to be invaluable in the aftermath of the terrible events of September 11, 2001. Immediately following the terrorist attacks, airspace all over the US was shutdown, creating a huge problem over what to do with aircraft already in the air and en route to the States.
Transport Canada initially asked air traffic controllers not to re-direct flights to already busy airports in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, and instead use available capacity at facilities on the Atlantic coast, Greater Moncton International included.
Moncton accepted ten aircraft, including Martinair and British Airways Boeing 767- 300s. Around 2,000 passengers were accommodated in the city for several days and the airport’s new infrastructure was put to a major test.
The new passenger terminal was eventually completed in early autumn of 2012 and was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on October 19 that year.
Along with the terminal (which gained the airport official international status), runway 06/24 was lengthened to 10,000 x 200ft (3,048 x 61m), and a full-length parallel taxiway and de-icing pad were added a year later. With all the new infrastructure in place, the airport was renamed Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport, honouring the former Governor General of Canada who was born in New Brunswick.
A house on a hill
Situated on a small hill, from landside the terminal building appears quite nondescript, however from the airside its green glass facade is quite spectacular.
The parking garage is located under the building, out of sight from the access road and creating the impression entire structure is smaller than it actually is.
The terminal’s main hall has check-in and arrivals areas at either end on the same floor. A Tim Hortons’ coffee shop, a newsstand and a bar are located between those two zones, and the entire terminal has a very open and airy design. Lots of local wood and stone have been used in the construction, creating a somewhat rustic-style feel.
After checking in for their flight, passengers pass through a post 9/11 upgraded security process before proceeding to the departure lounge ready for boarding. Two jetbridges are available and two additional aircraft parking stands are accessible via marked paths across the apron, just a short walk from the terminal. In fact distances around the building are also extremely short. Those visitors who are not flying can take advantage of an observation deck on a mezzanine level, alongside a small aviation gallery where it’s possible to find out about the history of the airport.
Airport Statistics
IATA code: YQM
ICAO code: CYQM
Location: N46°06›58›› W064°40›43››
Elevation: 232ft (71m)
Runways: 06/24 10,001 x 200ft (3,048 x 61m) 11/29 8,000 x 200ft (2,438 x 61m)
Frequencies: Tower: 120.8 MHz
Approach/Departure: 124.4 MHz
Ground: 121.8 MHz
Website: www.cyqm.ca
Airlines and routes
Moncton is a Bombardier Dash 8-heaven as three different operators provide most of the scheduled flights using Q400s. The main carrier, Air Canada, flies to four Canadian cities via its Air Canada Express subsidiaries. Toronto is the busiest route by far with up to six daily flights, followed by Montreal with up to four daily rotations. Ottawa is the only scheduled destination out of Moncton currently served by jets: Air Canada Express has six weekly flights (none on Saturdays) operated by Jazz Aviation CRJs. Halifax, just over a two-hour drive away, is also connected to Moncton by Air Canada. Up to four daily flights are flown by Exploits Valley Air Service on its behalf using Beechcraft 1900Ds. The other two airlines providing year-round service are WestJet, with up to three daily flights to Toronto, and Porter, offering a daily morning departure to Ottawa with connecting service to Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport (again both using Q400s). The airport is used to handling larger aircraft types, with both Air Canada and WestJet occasionally upgauging to meet capacity demands.
During the spring and winter months Moncton is a popular gateway to sunshine destinations. Last winter there were up to 15 weekly flights to holiday hotspots such as Orlando, Varadero in Cuba, Cancún in Mexico, Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and Montego Bay, Jamaica served by Sunwing Airlines and Air Transat.
Canadian North has also regularly been seen at the airport with its 737s, offering charter flights to Florida for cruise passengers as well as corporate charters for mining and oil companies around Canada.
The very successful ‘sun charter flights’, usually flown by 737-800s or even bigger aircraft, have helped turn March and April into the airport’s two busiest months of the year, while scheduled flights during the winter/spring months are reduced in line with decreased demand.
Airport president Bernard LeBlanc, while happy with the links the airport currently has, is hopeful that more airlines can be attracted to broaden the network still further.
A top priority would be relaunching a direct flight to a hub airport in the United States. Between 2006 and 2014, Continental Express (later United Express) ran daily flights from Moncton and Newark, providing an important business link with connection opportunities around the world. The airport is working hard to re-establish links to a US hub airport.
Possibilities might include a direct flight to Newfoundland or the return of a low-cost airline service, several ultra low-costs having recently started flying in Canada. Among the latter was virtual airline NewLeaf which, via Flair Air, operated flights from Moncton to Hamilton, Ontario for a brief period.
In 2017, Flair Air acquired NewLeaf and relaunched flights under the Flair Airlines brand. While the it has no plans to fly to Moncton in the foreseeable future, LeBlanc is confident that a lowcost carrier would do very well here.
Another opportunity he sees are direct seasonal flights to Europe during the summer months, something that Moncton had in the not-too-distant past. In the early 2000s, German carrier Condor offered charter flights from Hannover to Moncton (and on to Toronto) with its 757-300s. And French airline Corsair even sent a 747-400 to Moncton on seasonal summer flights from Paris in 2004 and 2005.
Being a capable airport in a strategic location close to the Atlantic Coast, Moncton frequently receives diverted transatlantic flights. Apart from passenger and cargo services, the latter flown by Canadian carrier CargoJet, the airport also has a flying school, the Moncton Flight College. Established in 1929, the college is the largest in Canada and keeps the facilities twin runways busy. Today, it is mostly Chinese students who learn to fly here and the school is able to take advantage of the airport’s excellent infrastructure because its runways are rather quiet for most of the day.
Poised for further growth
In 2017, Moncton Airport handled 665,630 passengers, its second-best year on record after 2014 and a 1.3% increase over 2016 (657,272). Most travellers flew with the three scheduled airlines: Air Canada Express, Porter and WestJet.
Increased passenger numbers can largely be attributed to WestJet adding frequencies on its Toronto route, as well as winter charter operator Sunwing, which transported more than 30,000 people to and from Moncton, a growth of 9.6% over 2016.
The airport is expecting to reach the 700,000-mark in the coming years and even though the terminal’s capacity is officially 1 million passengers per year, some optimization will be required inside the terminal when it does. As LeBlanc explains, the airport and primarily the terminal have the capacity to handle 700,000+ travellers a year, the challenge lies in dealing with the peaks. When two or three Dash 8 flights depart at the same time, possibly accompanied by a fully-booked 737-800, things can get a little crowded inside the terminal and at the security checkpoint.
The airport’s management has completed a 20-year masterplan that looks at how the facility will meet an increasing demand. And it has already tried to alleviate some of the pressure by installing an overflow seating area on the mezzanine level. It is intended to further develop unused space to remove bottlenecks, and an extended food and retail offering is also being considered, as is the possibility of extending the car park beneath the terminal. Once more, it is about coping with the peaks rather than increasing capacity.
One major development was completed in November 2015 with the inauguration of a new airport operations facility, next to the passenger terminal. This enabled four different departments to be brought under one roof: fleet maintenance, airfield maintenance, electricians and the aircraft rescue and fire-fighting team.
While the airport has been growing in terms of passenger traffic in recent years, it has also faced greater competition from its nearby rivals. Both Saint John and Fredericton, the other two major New Brunswick airports, have also increased their numbers. However, the busiest airport in the region at Halifax is operating in a very different league, with more than four million passengers served during 2017 and its comprehensive route network covering domestic, regional and transatlantic destinations.
At least Moncton can boast one advantage over its two other New Brunswick competitors – it offers the most modern facilities in the province. The airport’s management is doing everything possible to encourage new carriers to operate from here as it ensures its infrastructure can meet the forecasted growth in passenger numbers. Only time will tell if it an attract more in-bound tourism to this beautiful region of Canada.
