THUNDER BAY – BUSINESS – Fuelled by international traffic attending Confederation College, Lakehead University, and the Under 18 World Baseball Championships, Thunder Bay Airport set an all-time passenger volume record in August.
For the first time in the airport’s history, monthly volume exceeded 80,000 passengers by posting volume of 81,003 passengers. Traffic was up 4% from 2016.
“Although August is always a busy month, these numbers are unprecedented,” noted President & CEO, Ed Schmidtke. “The international traffic generated by the Baseball Championships combined with growing international student populations at our two post-secondary institutions generated a lot of activity.”
Schmidtke encourages local residents planning on traveling over the Christmas holidays to book their travel early. “We are already aware of large student volumes planning to fly home for that holiday season. With both Confederation College and Lakehead University reporting record numbers, we expect that there will be stronger demand than normal for air travel in December,” explained Schmidtke. “To avoid disappointment on either the fare price or seat availability we would strongly suggest booking early.”
