The new Nanaimo Airport lounge can fit twice as many people and expaned security means lines are shorter. (Spencer Sterritt/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

to the skies

VIDEO: Nanaimo Airport unveils $14M expansion

Feb 28, 2020 | 3:24 PM

NANAIMO — The ever-growing Nanaimo Airport now has vastly expanded security screening capacity and a large new lounge for passengers waiting to take off.

Airport staff unveiled the large new lounge and security area to community leaders on Friday, Feb. 28.

The lounge now seats roughly 300 and the security area will be able to process up to 1,000 people per hour. This doubles capacity in the lounge and increases security productivity by 10 times.

Nanaimo Airport Commission chair Wendy Clifford said the $14 million expansion project, started in April 2018, helps ensure the airport will be able to sustainably grow as it becomes more popular.

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“We have to be ahead of the curve. We have to plan years in advance of what’s coming and we’ve made it our strategic direction.”

Nearly 500,000 people passed through the airport in 2019.

The expansion is step one of a much more ambitious 20-year plan, which features more departure and arrival space.

Clifford said she’s heard great feedback from travellers in the month since the lounge opened for service.

“Everybody comments on how much light there is in the new expansion, how much they appreciate the big windows and the view of nature as planes come in and out. And of course, everybody really appreciates the fact they can get through security faster.”

Though the expansion was supposed to open in the fall of 2019, Nanaimo Airport CEO Mike Hooper said the project came in $100,000 under budget.

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