Ottawa Airport eyes expansion as YOW becomes ‘more of a hub’: CEO

David Sali

May 8, 2025

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Ottawa Airport officials are eyeing a long-term plan to expand YOW’s footprint as the terminal becomes “more of a hub” for connecting passengers, the airport’s new president and CEO says. Susan Margles said this week she’s “confident” passenger volumes at YOW will continue to grow as carriers such as Porter and Air Canada add more routes to destinations in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere. While acknowledging that a decline in business travel since the pandemic “will continue to have a negative impact on passenger volumes,” Margles told the audience at the airport authority’s annual general meeting Wednesday the drop in the number of business travellers “has been partially offset by an increase in connecting passengers, primarily driven by a number of new Porter flights.” In its annual report, the Ottawa International Airport Authority said connecting passengers accounted for 12 per cent of all traffic last year, up from just three per cent in 2023, thanks largely to the expansion of Porter’s network of flights from Ottawa to destinations throughout Canada and the U.S. In an interview after the meeting, Margles told OBJ Ottawa’s current terminal wasn’t designed to funnel such a large number of passengers connecting through YOW. But as Porter continues to expand its presence at the airport with the aim of making Ottawa a major hub, that will have to change, she added. “You need to have that smooth connection experience,” Margles said. “We will need more gates, we will need more capacity in our security area, in our (customs clearance) area. We’re looking at all of it at once and trying to have that foresight into the future. “Over the medium to long term, we are definitely looking at expanding the terminal itself.” YOW will “take a phased approach that makes sense” when it comes to expansion, she explained. The initial changes will likely involve “more of a reconfiguration” of the existing terminal to accommodate connecting passengers, Margles said. Officials are “looking at a number of different scenarios and predictions of passenger growth” in the hope of coming up with a long-term expansion blueprint that has “off-ramps” in case the plan needs to be scaled back or reassessed, she explained. “What we’re trying to do is take a long-term view on this,” Margles said, adding it will likely be at least five years before any expansion of the terminal building gets under way.

Passenger volumes up 13 per cent from 2023

The new CEO’s remarks followed an upbeat meeting at which YOW officials touted a strong 2024 that saw passenger volumes rise 13 per cent year-over-year to 4.6 million. Much of that growth came from passengers travelling to and from the United States and Europe. Transborder traffic to and from the U.S. jumped 29 per cent from 2023 to 800,000 passengers, fuelled by the addition of several new flights from Porter Airlines. Meanwhile, Air France’s new non-stop route to Paris helped push the number of passengers flying to and from Europe to 400,000, a 37 per cent increase over the previous year. The airport authority is predicting about 5.2 million passengers will pass through YOW in 2025, slightly more than in the last pre-pandemic year of 2019. Traffic volumes are projected to rise to 7.3 million passengers by 2030 and 8.2 million passengers by 2035 as Ottawa’s importance as a regional hub grows. Despite concerns that the ongoing trade war with the U.S. could dampen demand for travel to destinations south of the border, Margles said it’s a “good sign” that airlines haven’t made any major cuts to U.S. routes so far. Asked about the possibility of adding more flights to European destinations such as a return of Lufthansa’s Ottawa-to-Frankfurt route, Margles said it’s not at the top of her priority list. Travellers already have ready access to Europe and other parts of the world through Air France’s Paris flight and Air Canada’s recently relaunched direct flights to London’s Heathrow Airport, she noted, adding it’s too early to consider bringing more European carriers into the fold. “I think it’s important that we show the airlines that we have (enough) population who wants to use those (existing) flights before we go and seek competition to that,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to jeopardize what we’ve created with Air Canada and Air France right now when it comes to Europe. It doesn’t feel like there’s much missing at this point in time.” Invest Ottawa president and CEO Sonya Shorey said any moves to make air travel to the nation’s capital more convenient will benefit local businesses. “The airport is an invaluable partner, asset and resource for our community, for our city, and I fully support all of the steps that they are taking,” she said after Wednesday’s meeting. “We are always encouraging and would love to support any bids for additional flights, particularly those that look at where we’re going to be diversifying trade with the companies that we serve at Invest Ottawa.” As passenger volumes continue to rise, so do YOW’s revenues. The airport brought in $162 million last year, up 11 per cent from $146 million in 2023. YOW posted net income of $16 million in 2024, a 48 per cent rise from a profit of $10.8 million the previous year. In other news, the airport said the 178-room Alt Hotel that is connected to the terminal building is on track for completion by the end of this year. On the concession front, Margles said Starbucks will reopen this year. Meanwhile, the existing D’Arcy McGee’s Irish Pub, located across from Starbucks, will be demolished to make way for a new Zak’s Diner location.