We are already more than halfway through the month of June and I feel it goes by so fast. Here is a recap of the last couple weeks I worked at the airport.

At the beginning of June, we started receiving the passenger statistics from the airlines for the month of May. The file the companies give us usually contain: the date, flight number, origin and destination, passengers deplaned and passengers emplaned, aircraft type, and seats available. Some airlines include revenue passengers as well as non revenue passengers. Non Revenue passengers are usually babies that are two years old and under and crew that are travelling. What I do is that I take all the passenger totals from each airline and I combine them in an Access and Excel database.

I also do the same thing I mentionned above but with cargo. It includes the inbound and outbound cargo. We enter the cargo in kilograms but the american carriers calculates their cargo in pounds so we have to convert it.

First Air B737-400 Combi getting ready for its flight to Kuujjuaq. The aircraft can carry 4 cargo pallets and 72 passengers.

A few weeks ago, I met with the airport’s Schedule Facilitator. A part of his job consists of assigning the gates to the aircraft. He showed me the screen with all the gates assignments for a typical day. It looks like a big puzzle with different colors. It is not that easy to assign a gate to an aircraft. The turnaround of the aircraft and the size of the plane must be taken into account. For example, Delta’s Boeing 717 is usually parked for the night at gate C72,  because of its larger wingspan, while the other of Delta’s regional jets use gate C86 to C89 which are a bit further down the concourse.

United Express RJs getting ready to depart for their early morning flights.

Aeroméxico B738 featuring the new Split Scimitar Winglets. The aircraft is pushing back for its daily flight to Mexico City.

I also got to take a look at the new international concourse extension. The airport is adding six new international jet bridges to accomodate growth. Air China recently announced that it would begin flying from Beijing (PEK) to Montreal three times a week starting late September. Air China will be the first carrier operating scheduled flights from Montreal to the capital of China. New carriers added service to Montreal in the couple past few years, such as Copa Airlines to Panama City, Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, and Qatar Airways to Doha.

This is an idea of how the terminal will look like in about a year.

Extension of 6 new gates from the current International Concourse.

Everyday I spend working at the airport, I learn something new. I love that I am able to work in an environment I am studying in!

Until next time!

Nicolas