OTTAWA: Edmonton International Airport (EIA), a major regional economic driver, creating 12,600 annual direct and indirect jobs and generating nearly $1.2 billion in GDP with a total economic output of over $2.2 billion. In 2016, EIA experienced a busy year, not only serving 7,523,864 passengers, but also moving forward with many impressive cargo, commercial development and infrastructure projects that will benefit our local and regional economy.
EIA’s cargo services saw its seventh consecutive year of volume growth in 2016. It was a strong year for international cargo charters. Air China Cargo celebrated one year of service to and from EIA. This service flies between Shanghai Pudong Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Tianjin Binhai International Airport, two times a week. Edmonton’s Air China Cargo service is the only Canadian destination with scheduled freighter service to mainland China.
With cargo connections into Europe and Africa via Amsterdam, into Asia via Shanghai and the US via Chicago, EIA has transatlantic and transpacific routes and is a strong Canadian cargo hub option. This dovetails with EIA’s Port Alberta designation as a Foreign Trade Zone, allowing companies to reduce or eliminate normal trade barriers such as tariffs, quotas and compliance costs. Building on EIA’s cargo capacity, over 250,000 square feet of new cargo facilities were completed or announced in 2016.
