The longest runway in Canada drew curious onlookers on Father’s Day as the Calgary Airport Authority hosted a family friendly event.
Thousands of Calgarians, who pre-registered to attend the event, were shuttled to the new 4.2 kilometre landing strip where they encountered vintage planes, musical performances and the latest addition to Air Canada’s fleet, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
While the crowd enjoyed the planes and entertainment, the runway, with its 5,000 embedded LED light, was the star attraction of the day.
“It has been a long time waiting to open and we have a lot of people out here to celebrate with us,” said Jody Moseley, Calgary Airport Authority. “It’s a really big milestone for the airport!”
“We will be very anxious to give this new runway a spin,” said Air Canada’s Craig Landry. “We already have several international flights out of Calgary and we’re looking forward to taking off on this new runway as soon as it is ready to go.”
More than one million cubic feet of concrete was used to build the runway and its construction required 10 million worker hours.
The runway will officially open to air traffic on June 28.
