HALIFAX - For the second year in a row, passenger traffic at Halifax Stanfield International Airport in 2021 was down 75 per cent from pre-pandemic levels. The Halifax International Airport Authority says that by the end of 2021, with the Omicron variant causing a huge increase in COVID-19 infections, the airport once again returned to 30 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. In all, 1.1 million passengers travelled through the airport last year, compared with the 4.2 million passengers welcomed in 2019 before the pandemic hit. “We anticipate that it will take several more years for the airport to fully recover from the effects of COVID-19.”The airport authority, like others across the country, operates on a user-pay model, which means it has few ways to make money without passenger traffic. About 45 per cent of concessions in the air terminal building remain closed, while others have reopened with limited hours.

Source: The Star January 29, 2022 17:02 UTC