How many years does close to $600M buy you?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/10/2011 (5441 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The soon-to-be-dismantled old terminal building lasted more than 47 years, but how long will the new one last? Winnipeggers won’t be anxious to start paying a jacked-up airport improvement Fee for another new terminal building in a decade or two.

Not to worry, says Barry Rempel, president of the Winnipeg Airports Authority. The new building will be able to easily handle the 3.4 million passengers that fly out of Winnipeg each year, and it has the capacity to handle up to five million passengers without any impact in service levels.

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If the previous decade is any indication, capacity won’t be an issue for many years to come. In 2001, the airport saw 2.8 million passengers pass through.

“This building will take us to five million passengers before we have to do anything. We can add more gates, extend the building or hang bridges off the end. You can make this building as large as you want,” Rempel says.