New domestic arrivals terminal now open at regional airport

The Region of Waterloo International Airport (YKF) officially unveiled and opened its brand new domestic arrivals terminal Thursday morning. It's part of a $35 million airport terminal expansion project, funded in part by the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and the Canada Community-Building Fund.

Several local officials, including Regional Chair Karen Redman and Kitchener-Conestoga MP Tim Louis, airport staff, and contractors were in attendance for the ribbon cutting.

"This wasn't here 9 months ago, and we now have a fully finished facility," said Redman. "If we intend to continue to be a world-class region, one of the things we need is a world-class airport, so we think this is a good investment for the future of the economic vibrancy, not only for the region, but the province and Canada."

Located directly beside the existing terminal, the new building is 12,000 square feet and significantly increases the airport's capacity, with enough carousel space for four arriving flights at one time.

"Most of our flights are going to be within Canada, so this needed to be a focus," said airport general manager Chris Wood. "We hardly had capacity."

The new arrivals terminal is only part one of the expansion project. A new departures lounge will be 20,000 square feet and is scheduled to open on June 1, which is when YKF will increase its flight capacity from four per day to seven or eight per day. Officials estimate YKF could see upwards of 700,000 travellers in 2022.

"We have a ton of capacity now. We can arrive four flights at the same time, and depart four flights at the same time," said Wood. "If we have seven or eight flights a day, and each airplane has 189 seats, we could be doing 1,500 passenger a day, times 365 days a year."

Wood said the overall cost of the project is $44 million, once you include additional staff and equipment. $35 million was specifically for the physical expansion, and $8.1 million of gas tax revenue was provided by the federal government.

Renovations to the existing terminal will be the final piece of the puzzle. Wood said he expects the entire project to be complete by March 2023.