EDMONTON – In two weeks, after years of work, Edmonton International airport’s newly expanded US departure area will finally be open. To help ensure things run smoothly on the big day, more than a thousand volunteers came out to take part in a trial run of the terminal, getting a sneak peak of it in the process.
Bob Guacci was the first volunteer to walk through the doors of the new addition, and he’ll also be one of the first to fly out of it when the terminal opens on February 11th.
“We wanted to see how everything operates here,” he said. And from what he saw, he believes the terminal compares to the major airports he’s been in around the world.
The expanded US departure terminal will feature high end stores, resturants, a play area for kids, and state-of-the-art technology.
“This is a first-class, state-of-the-art facility, and I’ve already some of the things here and it’s just fabulous,” said Guacci.
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Airport officials will take into account what he and the around 1,400 other volunteers thought, and will use their comments to improve the current systems in place.
“If you think about coming to an airport, it’s a series of processes. You’re parking your car it’s a series of processes, checking in is a series of processes, so we need to make sure that every step in those processes are working as well as they can,” said the EIA’s CEO, Reg Milley.
In addition to testing the P.A. System, as well as the flow of the customs and bagging lines, officials wanted to see how effective the signing is.
“The only way to do that is to have people come in,” said Director of Activation, Gord Moirehaug.
The opening of the new U.S. departure terminal comes at a really good time for EIA since, last year, the number of people flying to the U.S. from the airport increased by 8 percent to 1 million passengers.
Those responsible for its creation, including Milley, believe the new facility is not just an expansion of the airport but an indication of our city’s growth.
“It is all about the community, giving back to the community, having a facility the community is going to love and be very very proud of and we think we have that now.”
With files from Slav Kornik, Global News
Here’s a video of what the expansion is supposed to look like:
To see more, click here.
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