By Philip Round - CV Echo Staff

More than half a million passengers a year are likely to be flying in and out of Comox Valley Airport as soon as eight years from now - more than double the current record-breaking numbers. And by 2025 the figure could have grown to a staggering two million if growth continues at the rate of the past few years.

Those were the startling projections made by airport chief executive Chuck Fast to local business leaders and politicians at the annual Business Links forecasting event held at the Best Western Westerly Hotel in Courtenay.

The airport will look rather different if it is to accommodate such a big long-term increase, with an expanded terminal to handle wide-bodied jets on long-haul routes, much larger car parking lots, improved road access and enhanced public transport links.

But the local airport commission is so confident that passenger numbers will continue to soar that it recently invested in a major expansion of the apron to allow big planes to park. They want to be sure they are ready for the anticipated airborne invasion of tourists and business people, and ready to provide Island residents with new destinations for their vacations and commercial trips.

Land alongside the existing terminal has also been earmarked for an extension to the building with new facilities such as loading bridges to get on and off large aircraft. The commission is in the lucky position of not having to invest money in runway works - the military runways at Comox are the second-longest in B.C. and are able to take the biggest planes.That is one of the advantages that allowed the local airport to overtake Nanaimo years ago. The Harbour City's airport used to be second only to Victoria for passenger traffic, but that role has long since been eclipsed by Comox.

Comox can actually handle many more passengers than it does now even without a terminal expansion, as long as new flights use aircraft similar in size to those currently servicing the airport and the scheduling of arrivals and departures is carefully staggered. That's because the present terminal was designed to handle a maximum of 500 people at any one time - 250 in, 250 out - so there are several quieter periods in each day when extra planes could be slotted in.

Fast later told the Echo that estimates from consultants indicate growth at Comox could be up to 9 per cent a year - but that is well below the annual increases recorded for the past few years. Their top estimate shows the number of passengers could more than double from the present 238,000 a year to 483,000 by 2015. Even their most pessimistic estimate predicts the total will jump to 321,000.But if growth continues at the more typical 12 per cent a year, says Fast, the airport will be handling 666,000 passengers in eight years' time."I can't see less than double-digit growth," he comments, "especially as new routes open up." "The more services you can provide, the more demand increases. It's as simple as that. And we've been adding new services each year."

So what's the next name travellers might see on the destination board? "I feel sure we'll be direct to Toronto within a couple of years and I'm confident we'll get direct flights to Europe in time. "He's also long coveted securing a direct service to a U.S. airport, but has not yet sealed a deal despite several rounds of talks. The objective is to find an airline that will fly to a hub airport in the States - an airport through which passengers are able to connect with many other routes - and where many other routes would connect to direct Comox flights. He'd prefer the American city not to be just a destination in its own right, although he wouldn't turn that down. "We want connectivity - that's what will really drive up the numbers," he commented. "We'll find them (a U.S. partner airline). There's no doubt about that. It's just a question of when."

Things have been held back, he said, because there is no long-term data to prove the potential of Comox Valley as a true gateway destination to Vancouver Island. But that is changing with each extra year of growth and with enhanced services to Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver all proving increasingly popular. "The way things are growing speaks for itself," he said. "Just based on current air services I anticipate 15 per cent growth this year."That would add an extra 35,000 passengers in and out of Comox, bringing the total to more than 270,000 - and another strong hint to the Americans that there could be a real opportunity for a U.S. airline to jump on the bandwagon.

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