Quebec City International Airport: servicing tourism and its critical regional support roles

Quebec City Jean Lesage International Airport (hereafter QCIA) serves the Quebec City city-region of Quebec - the province's second largest after Montreal. Situated in a highly populated area with a significant economic base and well visited by tourists it nonetheless is considerably smaller than comparable airports in Canada, such as Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (although that airport serves the capital city).

But QCIA does have a very important regional role, helping to support small communities in the northern, Inuit regions of the province. What is more, it is building with a long-term future in mind that will take it to over two million passengers annually by 2020, and its vision is to be one of Canada's best airports.

This report examines QCIA by way of several sets of metrics; it looks at the airports that are rivals to it, at its construction activities and at its ownership in the light of possible moves to impose privatisation on Canada's airports.