The Edmonton International Airport is often criticized because of its distance from downtown Edmonton. The issue involves access, as there is currently limited public transit available to the airport. Access to the airport is well set up for private vehicles, with ample parking, and for taxi or airport shuttle service. In recent months, limited public bus service has been instituted on a trial basis.
I believe it would be advantageous to have passenger rail service available to connect the airport with points in Edmonton, including downtown. The likeliest option is to build an extension of the existing south LRT line. Such public transit would facilitate access for local citizens, and would serve to help reduce the traffic flow of people arranging transport with the help of friends and thus reduce greenhouse emissions. It would also serve to facilitate access for business travelers and support the tourist industry. I have heard others voice their desire for public transit access to the airport on numerous occasions.
But since a resisting factor to connect the airport to Edmonton with LRT has to do with the distance issue, I thought I would conduct a study. By using the Google Earth ruler function to calculate the distances between two points, I measured the distance from the airports of various cities around the world to their respective cities’ downtown core.
One endpoint of the measurement on the Google Earth map is placed on the airport sign for the airport close to a major city, and the other endpoint of the measurement is centered on the “red dot” that for most cities indicates the downtown region of that city. For Vancouver, it appears that the “red dot” is placed at Vancouver City Hall, which is not in the downtown core; therefore the measurement for that city is altered to the business core. The measurement is as the crow flies, which seems reasonable for most locations, but for Hong Kong it is obvious that much of the distance measured goes over water, and the road along the coast to access the airport is a longer route than what the measurement indicates.
So what of Edmonton? Edmonton actually has three airports, so I thought it would be interesting to measure the distance to the downtown core of all three. The distance measured is in kilometers.
EdmontonInternational: 26.69
EdmontonMunicipal: 3.79
EdmontonNamao: 14.67
So how do these measurements compare with other world cities? I will start with Edmonton’s neighbour to the south, Calgary.
Calgary: 8.83
When it comes to Calgary, it is interesting to note that the southernmost city limit of Calgary is very close to the fork in Highway 2 that splits into Deerfoot Trail and Macleod Trail. The distance from this fork to Calgary downtown is 26.15 km. Therefore, the distance from the Edmonton International Airport to downtown Edmonton is virtually the same as being the distance from the southernmost Calgary city limit to the Calgary downtown region, as if the Edmonton airport were within the Edmonton city limits. It would be as if the southern Edmonton city limit were just to the north of Leduc and included the airport within Edmonton.
Other Canadian cities:
Vancouver: 11.21 – note: the Skytrain connects with the airport
Toronto: 20.34 (Pearson)
Ottawa: 10.33
Montreal: 15.85 (Dorval)
Average is 14.43 km.
US cities:
New York: 21.63 (JFK)
Chicago: 25.63 (O’Hare)
Houston: 25.29 (George Bush)
Los Angeles: 19.35
Honolulu: 9.02
Average is 20.18 km, but this average goes to 22.98 km if Honolulu is excluded.
European cities:
London: 23.08 (Heathrow) – note: the London Tube connects with Heathrow
London: 39.03 (Gatwick)
Manchester: 15.53
Frankfurt: 11.64 – note: there is a railway station at the airport
Munich: 28.52 – note: there is passenger rail access from the airport to downtown
Amsterdam: 11.38
Paris: 23.35 (Charles de Gaulle)
Paris: 15.26 (Orly)
Rome: 20.79 (Fiumicino)
Madrid: 13.24
Moscow: 28.92 (Ynukovo)
Stockholm: 6.80
Helsinki: 16.95
Kiev: 29.51 (Borispol)
Kiev: 7.43 (Zhulvany)
Average (not including Gatwick and Zhulvany) is 18.84 km.
Rest of World cities:
Nairobi: 13.25
Cape Town: 16.50
Hong Kong: 24.83
Seoul: 16.29
Tokyo: 16.33
Sydney: 9.58
Average is 16.13 km.
It is clear that the Edmonton International Airport ranks as being relatively further from the downtown city core, as compared with other Canadian, American, European, and Other World cities. However, the Edmonton International is certainly not the furthest away, in comparison with other major cities, and is not out of line with developing better access for users. Of note is that the Edmonton International and London Heathrow are at relatively comparable distances from their respective city downtown core, at 26.69 km and 23.08 km respectively. In making policy judgments based on the distance of the Edmonton International Airport from its downtown core, it would be advantageous to decision-makers to keep these facts in mind. Public transit access is needed. The taxi and shuttle services would likely not be affected, because users of taxis will likely continue to use taxis as their option of choice.
Edmonton is well suited to be a world-class city that facilitates travel for its citizens, business travellers to and from the city, and for tourists to Edmonton and surrounding regions. Edmonton needs an international airport of world-class caliber, which is one that facilitates public transit access for all sectors of travellers.