Passenger numbers at the Prince George Airport have taken off in a big way.
Traffic for January increased five per cent over the same month last year, while February saw an 11-per-cent jump year over year, airport marketing manager Lindsay Cotter said Friday.
For the first two months of 2012, 68,326 passengers have passed through YXS, a 5,121 increase over last year and Cotter said the year-end count should surpass 400,000 at the current pace.
By the end of 2011, traffic totaled more than 402,000 passengers - a 3.1 per cent increase over 2010 - with the bulk of the rise taking place in the last quarter of the year.
Prince George Airport Authority CEO John Gibson attributed the increase to a strong regional economy.
"When Premier Christy Clark was in town for the Natural Resource Forum earlier this year; she mentioned we were on the cusp of a northern renaissance as billions of dollars were being invested in northern BC in the coming years." Gibson said.
"We are starting to see the increase in activity and we are expecting passenger numbers to continue to grow this coming year."
