page_title: Edmonton International Airport
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Edmonton International Airport / History
caption_attribution_description: English: May 1979. A snap shot of an Air Canada DC-9 taken through the tinted window by my seat at the rear of a very long stretched Air Canada Douglas DC-8 (were they called series 66?) airliner whilst on my way to Vancouver from London.
context_page_description: Edmonton International Airport is the primary air passenger and air cargo facility in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region of the Canadian province of Alberta. Operated by Edmonton Airports, it is located 14 nautical miles south southwest of Downtown Edmonton in Leduc County on Highway 2 opposite of the city of Leduc. The airport offers scheduled non-stop flights to major cities in Canada, the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and Europe.
  It is a hub facility for Northern Alberta and Northern Canada. The airport has a catchment area encompassing Central and Northern Alberta, northern British Columbia, and Yukon, the Northwest Territories and western Nunavut. Total catchment area is 1.8 million residents. It is Canada's largest major airport by total land area, the 5th busiest airport by passenger traffic and 9th busiest by aircraft movements. It served 8,254,121 passengers in 2018.
context_section_description: Transport Canada selected the current site for Edmonton International Airport, on the opposite side of the city from the military airport at RCAF Station Namao, and purchased over 7,000 acres (28 km²) of land. When the airport opened on November 15, 1960, its first terminal was an arch hangar. Today, it is in use by Summit Air. In 1963, a passenger terminal, built in the international style, was opened. It remains in use as the North Terminal. Artwork, fired by Alberta Natural Gas, adorned the departures area exterior. A large mural, commissioned by the Canadian government in 1963 for CAD$18,000 titled "Bush Pilot in Northern Sky" by Jack Shadbolt, remains to this day. An appraisal in 2005 indicated that the mural was worth $750,000, and a restoration of the mural was undertaken in 2007.
  During the 1970s, the airport experienced a rapid growth in traffic as the city of Edmonton grew, and served approximately 2 million passengers by 1980. However, from the early 1980s until 1995, traffic declined. This decline was attributed to the continued usage of Edmonton City Centre Airport as well as to a slowing economy. Edmonton City Centre did not have the facilities to accept large wide-bodied, long-haul aircraft. Thus airlines used City Centre to fly short-haul flights to hubs in other cities where connections to many locations were available.
  Growth returned in 1995. In the 1995 Edmonton municipal election 77% of voters approved a plebiscite to consolidate all scheduled jet passenger service at Edmonton International Airport.
  In 1998, the airport began a $282 million "1998–2005 Redevelopment Project". The three-phase project included the construction of a south terminal and central hall concept, a commuter facility, doubling of the apron, and a multi-storey parkade. This redevelopment project expanded the passenger capacity to 5.5 million.
  By the time the expansion project was completed in 2005, continued passenger growth triggered planning for another expansion. A new 107,000-square-foot control and office tower was added in 2009.
  Further expansions completed in 2013 including seven new passenger gates, 14 boarding bridges, moving walkways, and advanced baggage handling and scanning systems. A new Renaissance Hotel was another major addition to the airport landscape.
  The airport played a major role during the 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire, operating as hubs for aerial firefighting and Medevac. The airport became a way-station and temporary shelter for thousands of Fort McMurray evacuees. The Emergency Operations Centre in the airport ran for 112 hours, organizing the arrival and departure of hundreds of aircraft. During May 2016, the airport saw more than 300 additional daily flights on top of their regularly scheduled service.
  In August 2016, the Government of Alberta announced $90 million in funding to begin twinning Highway 19 and that it has protected the area needed for a third runway, which is required due its estimated 3,530 m (11,580 ft) length and orientation as runway 11/29, causing it to exceed current airport boundaries. The airport also plans to extend runway 12/30 by one-third its current length from 3,100 to 4,030 m (10,170 to 13,220 ft) to increase accessibility and capacity tied to Port Alberta Developments/Intercontinental routes.
caption: Airside terminal with an Air Canada DC-9-30 at a jet bridge gate in 1979
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