Presented by Joseph Chen, P.Eng PMP
Director of Planning & Engineering,
Victoria Airport Authority
PRESENTER: As Director of Planning &Engineering Joseph is responsible for overseeing engineering projects spanning the planning, design, procurement, and execution phases. He received numerous professional Engineering Association awards for both the Calgary International Airport East Deicing Apron project in 2022 and Calgary International Airport Runway and Tunnel project in 2015. His previous airport experience (prior to joining VAA) includes work at Yellowknife, Cold Lake, and Hamilton airports.
DESCRIPTION: As reported in 2018, Transport Canada at that time had plans to introduce new regulations that would make it mandatory for larger airports in Canada to have 150 metres of extra space at the ends of their runways. This extra space is known as Runway End Safety Areas (RESAs) and are designed to prevent aircraft from overshooting the prescribed landing area.
The move comes more than a decade after the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) found that the RESA at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport was too short, after an Air France flight slid off one end of the runway and caught fire in August, 2005. The TSB, in its review of the incident, recommended all major airports in Canada extend their RESAs by 300 metres.
It was reported that the runways at Victoria International Airport would fall under those proposed regulations from Transport Canada, expecting the legislation would apply to airports that see commercial passenger traffic of at least 325,000 a year — which Victoria exceeds. YYJ has peaked at just over to 2 million passengers through its gates in recent years.
Joseph will give an update on the works under way at YYJ to comply with these requirements.
