Another YQM Expansion?

[Living 5500ASL]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/ ... o-850.html

The Greater Moncton Airport Authority is studying the prospects of extending one of its runways as it aims to become the air cargo gateway for North America.

Moncton often uses its central location between the other Maritime provinces to sell itself as a destination location for businesses.

Armed with that logic, the airport has launched a $140,000 study to examine the cost and impact of extending one of the runways by more than 1.2 kilometres to accommodate large freight aircraft.

Rob Robichaud, the airport's president and chief executive officer, said the study will assess whether a longer runway could convince businesses to start using air freight rather than rail and trucks to transport their products outside the Maritimes.

"We know in dealing with some of the producers, the shippers, the freight forwarders in the region, if we were to get regular scheduled, reliable airlift out of Moncton into Europe, they would be here," Robichaud said.

Roughly 80 per cent of lobster and other seafood products is shipped out of the Maritimes on trucks or trains.

Raymonde Landry works at the St. Thomas Fish Market at the Moncton airport and helps customers take small amounts of lobster and other Maritime seafood with them on their airplanes.

"This morning, I sold to two ladies from Yellowknife. They were bringing some lobster for their husbands," Landry said.

Air cargo traffic up in Moncton
The idea of expanding air cargo traffic could mean a lot more lobster could be shipped out of the region.

According to the airport's statistics, in 1997, when the airport was privatized, its cargo volume was 14,000 metric tonnes. In 2007, the airport's cargo volume jumped to 24,527 metric tonnes.

Despite its efforts to become the continent's air cargo gateway, Moncton is still second behind Halifax in terms of total cargo volumes. In 2008, the Halifax airport handled roughly 28,000 metric tonnes of cargo.

With so many businesses that have traditionally relied on alternative means to ship their goods, Robichaud said he understands that switching to air cargo would be an adjustment for many companies.

But Robichaud said the study, which is due at the end of October, could become a blueprint for economic growth for the Maritime region.

"We have an opportunity here as I say to change a 50-year-old paradigm, to grow our region," he said.

"So you will see the ripple effect in all the communities."

The idea of becoming an air cargo hub is popular among many smaller Canadian airports.

The Windsor International Airport could handle up to 90,000 tonnes of commercial air freight within 25 years in the southern Ontario city.

[RoyalCanadianRegiment]

extending one of the runways by more than 1.2 kilometres to accommodate large freight aircraft.

06/24 is 6150 feet and 11/29 is 8000 feet. The longest runway in Halifax (05/23) is 8800 feet and Halifax is the busiest airport in the region with lots of cargo flights coming in and out (DHL 747's for example). Why would Moncton want to waste money on extending a runway by 3937 feet? Are they having "size" issues? Do they feel inadequate because Halifax has a larger package? At least it would give MFC a longer runway to "land" their planes on

Cheers

[ScudRunner]

DHL has 747 now????

[RoyalCanadianRegiment]

My bad ., it was an MK Airlines 747, not DHL.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/s ... 283806_98/

RCR
http://www.learning-to-fly.com

[Living 5500ASL]

Update...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-bruns ... rship.html

One of Europe's top air cargo hubs has agreed to promote the Greater Moncton International Airport.

The airport has signed an agreement with Liege Airport in Belgium. At the end of 2009, Liege was the eighth biggest cargo airport in Europe. The two airports will work together to set up a direct air link between them.

Rob Robichaud, the head of the Moncton airport authority, said the partnership could lead to a huge jump in traffic.

Liege handles several hundred cargo flights a day from around the world.

Luc Partoune, who speaks for Liege, said Moncton could be part of that international hub, especially in sending seafood to Europe.

He's already working on at least one flight.

"We'll start operation with Icelandic Air from Moncton to Liege via Iceland because it's a main operator in fresh products, fishes and so," said Partoune.

Partoune said the deal will focus on getting planes to bring goods such as fresh fruit to the Maritimes or goods that could be trucked to the United States.

Robichaud said Moncton handles less than five per cent of the air cargo that Liege handles. However, with this deal he hopes some of the big international carriers will give Moncton a try.

"This is going to be huge for us, just having Liege recommending Moncton over any other airport in Atlantic Canada, I believe is going to be very, very beneficial."

Robichaud said an airline almost scheduled a stop in Moncton last week, but the airport's new longer runway still wasn't complete.

He said now that it is, it shouldn't be long before big jets start arriving.

[kevenv]

extending one of the runways by more than 1.2 kilometres to accommodate large freight aircraft.

06/24 is 6150 feet and 11/29 is 8000 feet. The longest runway in Halifax (05/23) is 8800 feet and Halifax is the busiest airport in the region with lots of cargo flights coming in and out (DHL 747's for example). Why would Moncton want to waste money on extending a runway by 3937 feet? Are they having "size" issues? Do they feel inadequate because Halifax has a larger package? At least it would give MFC a longer runway to "land" their planes on

Cheers

YHZ hasn't had 747 service in ages. What flights it does have are MAL 757s and KFA 727s. Of course YQM has the same aircraft flying into there. The number of YHZ cargo flights that exceeds YQM is small.