February Passenger Numbers Soar to New Heights

Prince George, BC – Passenger numbers through the Prince George Airport (YXS) for the month of February are in. From February 13-March 1, Prince George hosted the 2015 Canada Winter Games where organizers estimated approximately 15,000 people visited the city.

47,461 passengers used YXS in February which is a 34% increase over the same period last year. Over 130 flights directly related to the Games were chartered to transport athletes to and from YXS during the two week period. Six of those flights were chartered cargo flights which saw a Boeing 767 and two 757s land in Prince George which carried an additional 120,000 lbs of cargo.

Prince George Airport Authority President and CEO, John Gibson says “the 2015 Canada Winter Games was an incredible time for YXS and Prince George. We are extremely proud with how smooth airport operations went during the Games. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback with how seamless the process was and we look forward to sharing our plan with future Canada Games host city airports.”

“The entire process was seamless from the moment the athletes landed to the minute they took off. They were treated like rock stars.” says Michelle Collens, assistant chef de mission for Team B.C. ”In my five-time Games experience this was the smoothest logistical process I have ever witnessed at the airport, with zero stress of losing any bags or misplacing sport equipment. The systems that were put in place in the luggage sorting hanger was critical to the success of this outcome and would highly suggest that this best practice be shared with future games.”

Over 1,000 volunteer hours were put in at the YXS Games Welcome Centre during a two week period.