It’s a Big Day for Vancouver

Unfortunately, the Winter Olympics have ended. (I just love watching them - except for that disappointing hockey game yesterday!) With the games over, Vancouver International is now a few hours in to what is expected to be the busiest day in the airport's history, with 39,000 passengers coming through.

And because of all those extra passengers, extra flights have been added by airlines as well. For example, Air Canada's service to Paris and Frankfurt is seasonal from Vancouver, but they'll fly today along with special flights to Zurich and Geneva. Some domestic flights are seeing more capacity today as well.

The airport has been planning how to handle this one day for awhile. After seeing long lineups upon the conclusion of the 2002 games in Salt Lake, airport officials decided they didn't want that to happen in Vancouver. So the airport has been making investments to ensure that doesn't happen - it even spent $25 million (Canadian) on new snow removal equipment just in case a freak storm came today.

Paul Levy, VP of Olympics Planning for YVR told CTV, "Our goal is to be the best at what we do. We decided early on that we just didn't want to deliver a good Games experience. We actually wanted to be seen as the best-ever airport Games experience. We want to ensure that every customer who comes through our door has a positive and memorable experience."

Here's hoping everything goes smoothly for them. You can read more about YVR's efforts here.

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