Brandon airport upgrades are coming, officials promise
Passengers unhappy with cramped facilities during 3-hour delay this week
Complaints about the cramped, outdated municipal airport in Brandon, Man., have prompted city officials to ask for patience as upgrades are being planned.
A three-hour delay caused by a small plane crash earlier this week left some people grumbling about the facility, which has been seeing more passengers since WestJet started offering service between Brandon and Calgary earlier this month.
The complaints involved a lack of washrooms in the post-security lounge, a limited selection of food and drink, and cramped quarters generally.
Tim Sanderson, the City of Brandon's director of transportation services, says the airport was renovated in time for WestJet's arrival, but more upgrades are in the works.
"We did do a lot of upgrades to the airport just in order to accommodate the air service in this day and age, but we couldn't do any of these major renovations. We just simply didn't have the time for that," he said Friday.
"We're just going to [feel it] out to see how we can basically modify it based upon our actual experience today," he said.
Sanderson said the second phase of renovations, which is expected to address some of the passengers' concerns, will cost around $1.6 million and begin in the next few months.