Calgary International Airport (IATA: YYC, ICAO: CYYC), branded as YYC Calgary International Airport, is an international airport that serves the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is located approximately 17 km (11 mi) northeast of downtown and covers an area of 21.36 km² (8.25 sq mi). Calgary International is the busiest airport in the province of Alberta, fourth-busiest airport in Canada by passenger traffic and aircraft movements, with 16.27 million passengers and 233,017 movements in 2017. The region’s oil, gas, and tourism industries have helped foster growth at the airport, which has nonstop flights to an array of destinations in North America, Central America, Europe, and Asia. YYC Calgary International is also a hub for two major Canadian airlines, Air Canada and WestJet.

Built in the late 1930s, the site has since grown to house four runways, two terminal buildings with 5 concourses for passengers, warehouses for cargo handling, and other infrastructure. The Calgary Airport Authority operates the property while paying rent to the federal government. Close to the airport is the Deerfoot Trail freeway for transport into the city, and public transit also serves the airport.

YYC Calgary International Airport Aéroport international de Calgary YYC
IATA: YYC ICAO: CYYC WMO: 71877
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Transport Canada
Operator	Calgary Airport Authority
Serves	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Hub for	Air Canada WestJet
Time zone	MST (UTC−07:00)
• Summer (DST)	MDT (UTC−06:00)
Elevation AMSL	3,606 ft / 1,099 m
Coordinates	51°07′21″N 114°00′48″W
Website	www.yyc.com
Map
YYC Location in Alberta
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 08/26 6,200 1,890 Asphalt 11/29 8,000 2,438 Asphalt 17R/35L 12,675 3,863 Asphalt 17L/35R 14,000 4,267 Concrete
Statistics (2017)
Passengers 16,275,862 Cargo (tonnes) 147,000

History

The first airport to serve Calgary opened in 1914, in the neighbourhood of Bowness. It occupied one square kilometre (0.39 sq mi) and consisted of a hut and a grass runway. Operations shifted to a new airport southwest of the city in 1928, named Old Banff Coach Road Airport. However, issues with turbulence in the area prompted another airfield to be built the following year in Renfrew. This site was known as Calgary Municipal Airport.

As the city of Calgary grew in the area surrounding the Renfrew airport, the city government decided to relocate operations another time. It purchased an area of land north of Calgary in 1938 for about $31,000; this is the site of the current airport. Equipped with a paved runway, the airport opened on 25 September of the following year, about two weeks after Canada entered World War II. As a result, the federal government assumed control of the site in 1940, repurposing it as a fuel and maintenance stop for aircraft involved in the war effort. Regular passenger flights continued during this period. At the end of the war, the airport had been expanded to include additional hangars and other infrastructure. City officials resumed managing the airport and repurposed the new hangars as a passenger terminal. An improved terminal opened in 1956, and the airport was named McCall Field after World War I ace and lifelong Calgarian Fred McCall afterward.

Jet aircraft landed at the airport for the first time in 1961, and flights from Europe commenced the following year. The terminal received five expansions; however, the city government eventually did not have the funds to cope with rising traffic. It proceeded to sell the site to the federal government in 1966 for $2 million. The new owner refurbished the runways and renamed the site «Calgary International Airport». Eleven years later, it constructed a new terminal worth $130 million.

The airport again came under local management in 1992 when the Calgary Airport Authority was formed, although the authority still pays rent to the federal government. Four years later, WestJet began operations with a base at the airport, occupying an expanded area of the terminal. Another runway was inaugurated in 2014, and a new international terminal opened in 2016 at a cost of $1.6 billion, adding 24 gates. «YYC», the IATA code for the Calgary airport, was also affixed to the airport’s official name following a successful branding effort.

Infrastructure

Passenger terminals

Calgary International Airport. Concourse E of the new international terminal.

Calgary International Airport. Inside the domestic terminal.

Calgary International Airport. WestJet aircraft on Concourse A.

The Calgary airport houses two terminals, one for domestic operations and the other for international flights. The domestic terminal itself contains three concourses labelled A, B and C; the international terminal is composed of Concourse E for United States–bound flights and Concourse D for flights to other countries. Passengers travelling to the United States clear customs and immigration prior to departure at the preclearance facility.

The international terminal operates under a call-to-gate system in which passengers wait in a main seating and shopping area; they then proceed to the gate once flight information is posted. The two terminals are connected by both walkways and a separate path for the YYC Link service. Airport employees transport connecting passengers along this corridor in ten-seat vehicles.

WestJet has criticized the design of the international terminal, which opened in 2016. The airline’s CEO stated that the distance between the terminals was too long for connecting travellers and that YYC Link was insufficient to solve this problem. As a result, WestJet had to alter its schedules in order to allow additional time for passengers transiting through Calgary. The Calgary Airport Authority responded that it did not see issues with the connections process, although it said passengers would need some time to adjust to the new facilities.

Runways

The Calgary airport is equipped with four runways with the following dimensions:

• Runway 08/26 is 6,200 ft × 150 ft (1,890 m × 46 m)
• Runway 11/29 is 8,000 ft × 200 ft (2,438 m × 61 m)
• Runway 17R/35L is 12,675 ft × 200 ft (3,863 m × 61 m)
• Runway 17L/35R is 14,000 ft × 200 ft (4,267 m × 61 m)

The longest runway in Canada at the time of its 2014 opening, Runway 17L/35R was built to reduce congestion and better accommodate larger, heavier aircraft: the weight of such aircraft, combined with the low air density resulting from the airport’s high elevation and temperatures during the summer, means that a longer runway is necessary for take-off. Runway 17L/35R is also layered with concrete, a material more durable than the asphalt that composes the airport’s other three runways.

Cargo

The airport has allotted an extensive amount of area for cargo operations, including over 3,000,000 sq ft (280,000 m²) of warehouse space. Freight airlines such as Cargolux make regular trips to Europe, Asia, and other destinations. In 2017, the Calgary airport handled a total of 147,000 tonnes of cargo.

Other facilities

At 91 m (299 ft), the airport’s air traffic control tower was the tallest standalone control tower in Canada upon its opening in 2013; compared to the previous tower, it has space for more air traffic controllers and is situated closer to the centre of the airport, giving controllers better views of the airfield. Meanwhile, the headquarters of Canadian North as well as WestJet and its subsidiary WestJet Encore are located onsite. There are also two hotels on the airport property.

Airlines and destinations

In 2016, airlines offered nonstop service from Calgary to various destinations in Canada as well as to 45 cities in other countries. WestJet and Air Canada maintain hubs at the airport; they were the busiest airlines in Calgary per the number of seats they offered on flights departing the city: 5,060,000 and 3,380,000, respectively. For comparison, the third-busiest airline by the same measure, United Airlines, provided 390,000 seats. Ultimately, people continuing on to other destinations accounted for over 30% of total passenger traffic at YYC Calgary International.

Besides connecting passengers, travellers taking part in Alberta’s large oil and gas industries fuel growth at the airport. During periods of decline in these sectors of the economy, airlines such as WestJet have had to limit their flights to the city. On the other hand, tourist attractions in the province such as Banff National Park have attracted service as well. Hainan Airlines’ Calgary–Beijing route is an example.

As of January 2018, the following airlines offer scheduled flights to and from Calgary:

Statistics

In 2016, YYC Calgary International Airport was the fourth-busiest airport in the nation in terms of the total number of passengers that transited through the airport: about 15.7 million. Despite an ongoing recession, there was a roughly 1.3% increase over 2015. Of the total for 2016, travellers bound for domestic destinations constituted about 71%, and people travelling to the United States and other countries amounted to 29%.

In 2017, YYC Calgary International Airport was again the fourth-busiest airport in Canada in total passenger volume: about 16.3 million, a 3.8% increase, more than double from 2016. This setting another record in passenger volume, surpassing the previous record set in 2016. YYC’s cargo operations grew significantly with more than 147,000 tonnes of cargo moving through the airport, an increase of 7.7 per cent from 2016.

Passenger volumes for the period 2010–2017 are provided in the following table:

Cargo volumes for the period 2011–2017 are provided in the following table:

Ground transportation

Deerfoot Trail provides freeway access to the rest of the city. There is also a tunnel beneath Runway 17L/35R that links the east side of the airport site to the terminal buildings. Two parking garages and a rental-car facility are situated across from the terminals. Public transport options are also available at the airport: Buses operated by Calgary Transit link YYC Calgary International to downtown, a nearby station of the local CTrain light-rail network, and other parts of the city.

Notable accidents and incidents

A West Coast Airlines flight from Spokane to Calgary via Cranbrook made a crash-landing shortly before the runway on 24 August 1963, although no one onboard was killed. A likely cause of the accident is the fact that the Fairchild F-27 was approaching the airport too low.

Another incident occurred on the runway on 22 March 1984, when Pacific Western Airlines Flight 501 attempted to take-off. A component of the left engine broke off and hit the fuel stores in the wing, resulting in a fire that spread over the left and back portions of the Boeing 737-200. The pilots aborted take-off and exited the runway onto a taxiway, where flight attendants evacuated all passengers. While some suffered severe injuries, all the occupants survived.

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