Planes take off. Planes land. People work.
That movement of passengers and goods is what has helped build Vancouver International Airport (YVR) into Canada’s second-busiest air traffic gateway and a huge contributor to the Richmond, and B.C. economy.
It employs around 26,000 people, and last year handled just under 18 million passengers.
Along the way it has earned the YVR Airport Authority some pretty significant distinctions as North America’s top airport for the fifth consecutive year in the Skytrax World Airport Awards, as well as one of the world’s best in terms of customer satisfaction.
That was reason enough for the Richmond Chamber of Commerce to present its Newsmaker of the Year Award to the YVR Airport Authority.
“The Skytrax award is really a celebration of everybody at the airport,” said Anne Murray, YVR’s vice president of marketing and communications who accepted the award. “It’s really about the people.”
That combined effort to make YVR the ultimate welcome mat for visitors and returning residents, spans every aspect of the operations conducted on Sea Island, Murray added.
From the Green Coat volunteers who speak an array of languages and roam around the terminals assisting the public, to the staff who make sure the free baggage carts are available when you need them, the undertaking of running YVR is a massive team effort.
If projections are accurate, a continued combined push by YVR’s workforce will need to continue as the airport authority’s 20-year master plan released in 2007 anticipates passenger traffic to jump to an estimated 33.4 million.
