World City Guide

Getting There By Air

Calgary International Airport (YYC)
Tel: (403) 735 1372.
Website: www.calgaryairport.com

Calgary International Airport is located 17km (10.5 miles) northeast of the city centre. The busiest airport in Alberta and the third busiest in Canada, Calgary International is the transport hub for southern Alberta. It handles over eight million passengers every year and features the largest civil aviation runway in Canada. It is served by some two dozen scheduled and charter airlines, providing service to over 80 Canadian and international destinations.

Major airlines: The national airline is Air Canada (tel: (403) 265 9555 or (888) 247 2262; website: www.aircanada.com), which operates regional services under the name Air Canada Jazz. The low-cost airline WestJet (tel: (403) 250 5839 or (800) 538 5696; website: www.westjet.com) operates flights between Calgary and other destinations mainly in western Canada. Zoom (tel: 0870 240 0055 in the UK or (866) 359 9666 in the US; website: www.flyzoom.com) operates between Calgary and a few cities in the UK (London Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow). Other major carriers include Air Transat, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Canadian North, Continental Airlines, Delta, Lufthansa, Northwest and United Airlines.

Approximate flight times to Calgary: From London is 8 hours 30 minutes; from New York is 4 hours 50 minutes (plus transfer); from Los Angeles is 3 hours; from Toronto is 4 hours and from Sydney is 17 hours (plus transfer).

Airport facilities: These include duty-free shops, banks, ATMs, bureaux de change, baggage storage, mobile phone hire, an electronic hotel finder (French and English), an oxygen bar, medical clinic, post office, restaurant, food court, bars, visitor service centre and car hire from Alamo, Avis, Budget, Hertz, National and Thrifty.

Business facilities: These include credit-card operated Internet and e-mail services. Some business facilities are also available in airline executive lounges.

Transport to the city: The Calgary Transit (tel: (403) 262 1000; website: www.calgarytransit.com) bus service (route 57) connects to the C-Train at Whitehorn station for the city centre. A variety of other shuttle services are also available. Airport Shuttle Express (tel: (403) 509 4799 or (888) 438 2992; website: www.airportshuttleexpress.com) and the Airporter, operated by Cardinal Coach Lines (tel: (403) 531 3909; website: www.cardinal-cal.com) both service the city centre. Brewster (tel: (403) 762 6700 or (800) 661 1152; website: www.brewster.ca) and Banff Airporter (tel: (403) 762 3330 or (888) 449 2901; website: www.banffairporter.com) both service Banff. Taxis are available at metered rates, with journeys taking about 20 minutes to Downtown.