Charlottetown, PEI - The Charlottetown Airport Authority released the year-end traffic results for the airport today showing an 11.5% increase over 2007. A total of 282,385 passengers passed through the airport in 2008.

"This growth is substantial and we are very pleased with 2008 numbers,” noted CEO Doug Newson. “We were especially pleased to see that the traffic in the fourth quarter was 11.3% more than 2007. Many airports in Canada are beginning to see the effects of airline service cuts with traffic slowing in the fourth quarter, so Charlottetown has more than held its own with double digit growth."

Chair of the Charlottetown Airport, Gordon MacInnis explained "The Airport has had six years of consecutive passenger growth because of the hard work of the authority and support from many stakeholders. The air traffic performance for Prince Edward Island can now speak for itself and we are on the map in terms of attracting new carriers and new destinations."

MacInnis continued, "We would especially like to thank the traveling public for choosing to fly to and from PEI. The more we support the services offered in Prince Edward Island the stronger those services become."

Moderate Capacity Growth Anticipated for 2009

The Charlottetown Airport, despite an extremely challenging economic environment, is cautiously optimistic about traffic numbers for 2009. Newson stated, "While the current market environment makes it extremely difficult to predict, we will continue to work with air carriers to meet demand and are anticipating that 2009 will be a year of moderate
growth in terms of the number of seats available in the market. We are hopeful that a strong year for meetings and conventions in PEI, along with events like the 2009 Canada Summer Games, will offset any possible traffic decline due to the economy."

Newson added, "With our new Ottawa service as a year-round destination and the growth in number of sun flights, the airport should have a positive start to the year in the first quarter of 2009."

For the winter season there are still a number of travel options direct from Charlottetown. Islanders can fly direct to Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto on Air Canada or WestJet (Toronto). Sunwing is also offering direct flights to Varadero, Cuba starting February 17, 2009.