The good times are rolling in at Quebec City’s Jean Lesage Airport (YQB).
Airport officials say traffic is booming and they’ve expanded their destination map. They’re also limiting financial losses.
“Thanks to passengers returning in droves and rigorous, careful financial management, YQB was able to achieve a remarkable feat: limiting losses to $1.21 million in 2023, rather than the estimated $9.8 million,” officials said.
Traffic through YQB continued to trend upward last year, with a 43.8% increase in pax compared to 2022. A total of 1.68 million passengers passed through the airport's doors in 2023, representing 94% of pre-pandemic traffic.
Airport officials said it attributes its result to efforts it has made in collaboration with its business partners and the economic and tourism sectors of the greater Québec City area. In line with the 2020 forecasts, passenger traffic will probably not return to 2019 levels until 2025 or even 2026, with 2024 expected to be a stable year.
“Thanks to the arrival of new players, the increased number of flights to popular destinations, and the willingness to take up the challenge of new destinations with long-standing partners, YQB has provided the population of the greater Québec City area and the entire eastern part of the province with access to even more destinations: 37 in total,” they said.
New flights include:
- Flair Airlines: direct flights to Halifax and Edmonton in summer 2023
- Air France: return of the Québec City-Paris route for a second summer in 2023
- Air Transat: return of seasonal service to London
- Air Canada: Québec City-Vancouver route extended through winter 2023–2024
- Sunwing: new flight to Cayo Largo, Cuba
Over the past year, YQB has delivered on a number of major projects to ensure the durability of its facilities and meet passenger needs. Its teams have completed the first phase of work to rebuild the threshold of Runway 29 and renovate taxiways Golf and Hotel. Work resumed this spring with the aim of completing the project in 2024.
YQB has also installed a one-way corridor at the international arrivals exit to improve traffic flow.
Over the next few years, YQB will face issues involving aging civil infrastructure on the airfield, capacity in certain key areas of the terminal, and equipment additions related to new regulations. Significant investments are anticipated in the coming years.
"As we complete the 2020–2025 strategic planning cycle, we can see that despite challenging circumstances and the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, we have made significant progress since 2020,” said Stéphane Poirier, President and CEO, Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport. “We gave ourselves a mission: to work hand in hand with the region's driving forces and create the winning conditions to improve air service and sustain our growth. That's what we aspired to do every day.
“Fortified by our strengthened business intelligence and the enthusiasm of our community, we're in a much better position to face these challenges than we were five years ago. We're ready to move on to the next stage, building on a foundation that's growing stronger every day,” Poirier said.
