The major airport in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada is Victoria International Airport (IATA: YYJ, ICAO: CYYJ).
List of active airports in the Greater Victoria region:
Victoria Harbour (British Columbia)
Victoria Harbour is a harbour and seaplane airport in the Canadian city of Victoria, British Columbia. It serves as a cruise ship and ferry destination for tourists and visitors to the city and Vancouver Island, it is both an airport of entry for general aviation. It was a shipbuilding and commercial fishing centre. While the Inner Harbour is within the City of Victoria, separating the city's downtown on its east side from the Victoria West neighbourhood, the Upper Harbour serves as the boundary between the City of Victoria and the district municipality of Esquimalt; the inner reaches are bordered by the district of Saanich and the town of View Royal. Victoria is a federal "public harbour". Several port facilities in the harbour are overseen and developed by the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, however the harbour master's position is with Transport Canada. Before European development the Coast Salish Songhees people lived in settlements to the east of the harbour and the Esquimalt people lived to the west of it.
They cultivated camas root and other crops in meadows lined with cultivated Garry Oak trees along the harbour. Shell middens along the Gorge Waterway are evidence of human habitation dating back 4000 years. In the summer of 1790 Manuel Quimper, Gonzalo López de Haro, Juan Carrasco aboard the Princesa Real explored the Juan de Fuca Strait where they claimed Esquimalt Harbour for Spain, naming it Puerto de Córdova. In 1843 James Douglas led the effort to construct an outpost on Vancouver Island for the Hudson's Bay Company, he rejected Esquimalt Harbour due to dense tree growth and chose instead to site Fort Victoria overlooking the Victoria Harbour. On 11 March 1850 HMS Driver was docked in the harbour to witness Richard Blanshard assume the Governorship of the newly formed Colony of Vancouver Island and issued a seventeen gun salute. In 1852 sailors from the British naval ship HMS Thetis built a trail through the forest linking the Esquimalt Harbour with Victoria Harbour and Fort Victoria; the trail would be paved and is now known as Old Esquimalt Road.
The Fisgard Light and Race Rocks Light were built on islands outside of Esquimalt and Victoria harbours in the years 1859 and 1860. The former light was constructed by Joseph Despard Pemberton as supervising engineer, the latter light was constructed by the crew of the HMS Topaze; the two lighthouses were the first built on Canada's west coast and still serve as active aids to navigation. In 1858 the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush took place. In 1861 and 1862 the Cariboo Gold Rush took place. Both of the gold rushes swelled traffic through the harbour as a massive influx of people came to Fort Victoria to buy permits and supplies before setting out for the mainland. Victoria was incorporated as a city on 2 August 1862. In 1858 Captain William Moore moved from San Francisco Bay to Victoria, he built several barges and steamships in Victoria and participated in trade associated with the gold rushes in British Columbia and the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon. Moore died in Victoria 29 March 1909; as a steamship captain Moore was a rival of both John Irving.
In 1859 Captain William Irving became a partner in the Victoria Steam Navigation Company that provided ferry service between New Westminster and Victoria. The Irving family lived for a time in Victoria in New Westminster. In 1882 William's son Captain John Irving 28, ordered the construction of the R. P. Rithet sternwheeler to expand his fleet of the Pioneer Line. R. P. Rithet was constructed by Alexander Watson's shipbuilding company in Victoria. In 1882 Irving helped to form the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company and the Pioneer Line ceased to exist; the following year John Irving was made the general manager of the CPNC and he ordered the purchase of the Yosemite from California and brought it up to Vancouver to serve as a ferry from Vancouver to Victoria. In that first year of service Yosemite set a speed record of four hours and 20 minutes for the 72-nautical-mile run from Vancouver to Victoria; the record stood until 1901 when the ocean liner Moana made the run in one minute. On 24 September 1860 a 14-year-old American named Charles Mitchell hid on board the PS Eliza Anderson – a ferry, making its way from Olympia, Washington to Victoria – when it was revealed to the crew on board that the young man was a stowaway and may have been a fugitive slave.
Upon reaching Victoria Harbour Mitchell was held on board. Soon a group of local Victorians descended to the dock to protest Mitchell's confinement. Legal proceedings ensued and Mitchell was released to become a free Canadian. In February 1863 carpenters in Victoria established one of British Columbia's first trade unions the Journeymen Shipwrights Association of Victoria & Vancouver Island. On 4 May 1863 Joseph Spratt and Johann Kriemler started the Albion Iron Works that would become the Victoria Machinery Depot shipbuilding company on property adjacent to the Upper Harbour. In 1888 the company launched their first vessel Princess a tugboat built for the Department of Public Works. In 1865 the British Royal Navy relocated the headquarters of its Pacific fleet from Valparaíso, Chile, to the Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard in Esquimalt Harbour; the move meant Esquimalt's harbour took on more of a military character and allowed Victoria's to develop more commercially. Five years after the 1905 departure of the Royal Navy the Pacific base of the new Royal Canadian Navy occupied Esquimalt in 1910 which operates today as CFB Esquimalt.
A shipyard started operating in 1873 at Point Hope on the Upper Har
Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 85,792, while the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria has a population of 367,770, making it the 15th most populous Canadian metropolitan area. Victoria is the 7th most densely populated city in Canada with 4,405.8 people per square kilometre, a greater population density than Toronto. Victoria is the southernmost major city in Western Canada, is about 100 kilometres from British Columbia's largest city of Vancouver on the mainland; the city is about 100 km from Seattle by airplane, ferry, or the Victoria Clipper passenger-only ferry which operates daily, year round between Seattle and Victoria, 40 kilometres from Port Angeles, Washington, by ferry Coho across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Named after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and, at the time, British North America, Victoria is one of the oldest cities in the Pacific Northwest, with British settlement beginning in 1843.
The city has retained a large number of its historic buildings, in particular its two most famous landmarks, Parliament Buildings and the Empress hotel. The city's Chinatown is the second oldest in North America after San Francisco's; the region's Coast Salish First Nations peoples established communities in the area long before non-native settlement several thousand years earlier, which had large populations at the time of European exploration. Known as "The Garden City", Victoria is an attractive city and a popular tourism destination with a thriving technology sector that has risen to be its largest revenue-generating private industry. Victoria is according to Numbeo; the city has a large non-local student population, who come to attend the University of Victoria, Camosun College, Royal Roads University, the Victoria College of Art, the Canadian College of Performing Arts, high school programs run by the region's three school districts. Victoria is popular with boaters with its rugged beaches.
Victoria is popular with retirees, who come to enjoy the temperate and snow-free climate of the area as well as the relaxed pace of the city. Prior to the arrival of European navigators in the late 1700s, the Victoria area was home to several communities of Coast Salish peoples, including the Songhees; the Spanish and British took up the exploration of the northwest coast, beginning with the visits of Juan Pérez in 1774, of James Cook in 1778. Although the Victoria area of the Strait of Juan de Fuca was not penetrated until 1790, Spanish sailors visited Esquimalt Harbour in 1790, 1791, 1792. In 1841 James Douglas was charged with the duty of setting up a trading post on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, upon the recommendation by George Simpson a new more northerly post be built in case Fort Vancouver fell into American hands. Douglas founded Fort Victoria on the site of present-day Victoria in anticipation of the outcome of the Oregon Treaty in 1846, extending the British North America/United States border along the 49th parallel from the Rockies to the Strait of Georgia.
Erected in 1843 as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post on a site called Camosun known as "Fort Albert", the settlement was renamed Fort Victoria in November 1843, in honour of Queen Victoria. The Songhees established a village across the harbour from the fort; the Songhees' village was moved north of Esquimalt. The crown colony was established in 1849. Between the years 1850-1854 a series of treaty agreements known as the Douglas Treaties were made with indigenous communities to purchase certain plots of land in exchange for goods; these agreements contributed to a town being laid out on the site and made the capital of the colony, though controversy has followed about the ethical negotiation and upholding of rights by the colonial government. The superintendent of the fort, Chief Factor James Douglas was made the second governor of the Vancouver Island Colony, would be the leading figure in the early development of the city until his retirement in 1864; when news of the discovery of gold on the British Columbia mainland reached San Francisco in 1858, Victoria became the port, supply base, outfitting centre for miners on their way to the Fraser Canyon gold fields, mushrooming from a population of 300 to over 5000 within a few days.
Victoria was incorporated as a city in 1862. In 1865, the North Pacific home of the Royal Navy was established in Esquimalt and today is Canada's Pacific coast naval base. In 1866 when the island was politically united with the mainland, Victoria was designated the capital of the new united colony instead of New Westminster – an unpopular move on the Mainland – and became the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871. In the latter half of the 19th century, the Port of Victoria became one of North America's largest importers of opium, serving the opium trade from Hong Kong and distribution into North America. Opium trade was legal and unregulated until 1865 the legislature issued licences and levied duties on its import and sale; the opium trade was banned in 1908. In 1886, with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway terminus on Burrard Inlet, Victoria's position as the commercial centre of British Columbia was irrevocably lost to the city of Vancouver, British Columbia.
The city subsequently began culti
View Royal is a town in Greater Victoria and a member municipality of the Capital Regional District of British Columbia, Canada. View Royal has a population of 10,858 residents. With over 700 hectares of parkland, View Royal includes McKenzie, Pike and Thetis Lakes and portions of the Esquimalt Harbour and Portage Inlet. View Royal's history is linked to the entire region; the Esquimalt First Nation, a Coast Salish indigenous people, have occupied View Royal since time immemorial. It began when early inhabitants of today's Esquimalt Harbour crossed an isthmus, now Portage Park, to harvest seafood in Portage Inlet. European settlement began in the 1850s by Kenneth Mackenzie who established a farm known as Craigflower Manor. In the mid-19th century, Dr. John Helmcken, Vancouver Island's first doctor and speaker of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly, paid the Hudson's Bay Company $5 per acre for hundreds of acres of land between Esquimalt Harbour and what is now Victoria General Hospital.
Land was cleared for Victoria's growth. In 1912, the Island Investment Company bought 80 acres of land below Four Mile Hill, fronting on the harbour, from Dr. Helmcken’s son James, they marketed lots as "View Royal" because of their "royal view". View Royal remained unorganized for over half a century. By the 1950s, things had begun to change. In 1959, a group of residents in the Shoreline Drive area circulated a petition urging annexation by Esquimalt. Several studies and referenda came and went but View Royal continued with its unorganized status. In 1966, the Capital Regional District emerged bringing with it regional approaches for delivery of some services such as sewage collection. A Price Waterhouse study presented three options: status quo, union with Esquimalt, or incorporation as a town; the town’s incorporation became official December 5, 1988. Many historic sites can still be found in View Royal including: Four Mile Pub & Six Mile Pub: two historic "road houses" or pubs that have existed for 150 years.
Craigflower Manor & Schoolhouse: one of Canada's National Historic Sites. Completed in 1856, the Manor site was one of four original farms set up by the Hudson's Bay Company as part of their obligations in settling Vancouver Island; the site housed the McKenzie family in the Manor as well as twenty other dwellings, a saw mill, a flour mill, a blacksmith's shop, a brick kiln, slaughterhouse and a general store. The Craigflower Schoolhouse, the companion adjacent site to the Manor, is located across a municipal border; the two properties are located at the intersection of Admirals Road, Craigflower Road and Island Highway. View Royal is divided into eight neighbourhoods based on topography, transportation corridors, natural environment and the age of housing stock; these neighbourhoods are Atkins, Craigflower, Helmcken, Hospital and Wilfert. In 2011, there were 4,140 housing units in the town with a median population age of 44.1 years, which compares to the CRD's of 44.8. View Royal has 25 kilometres of trails.
View Royal's shoreline includes sandy beaches with small caves, large driftwood and rocks, which are home to starfish, crabs and other marine life. Several changes have gone on in View Royal in recent years, including the completion of the Island Highway Improvement Project in 2011, which included new cycle lanes, turning lanes, planted medians. Beginning in 2013, the Town of View Royal and District of Saanich replaced the 80-year-old Craigflower Bridge and approach roads, construction began on the new Public Safety Building, scheduled to be complete in fall 2014. Town of View Royal Craigflower Bridge Replacement Project New Public Safety Building History of the Six Mile Pub View Royal Fastball Association
North Saanich is located on the Saanich Peninsula 25 km north of Victoria, British Columbia on southern Vancouver Island. It is one of the 13 Greater Victoria municipalities; the District is surrounded on three sides by 20 km of ocean shoreline, consists of rural/residential areas and a large agricultural base and is home to the Victoria International Airport and the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal. In July 1905, North Saanich including the townsite of Sidney, was incorporated with the original Municipal Hall located in Sidney. Lacking population and a firm tax base, the municipality was dissolved in 1911. In 1940, the site of the present Victoria International Airport was selected as a military forces base and the area boomed with the influx of 10,000 military personnel, leading to incorporation for the Village of Sidney in 1952. Four years the residents of the North Saanich unorganized area, numbering 2,865, requested that letters patent be issued to form the "North Saanich Fire Prevention District" with power to own property, to tax and to borrow.
In 1965, after a favourable public vote, the letters patent were withdrawn and the North Saanich Municipal District was established with offices at the present location on Mills Road. The largest animal to be found in North Saanich is the cougar. Other native mammals include the black-tailed deer, otter and deer mouse. Of introduced mammal species, the cottontail rabbit and gray squirrel are seen. Common native birds include the northwestern crow, common raven, bald eagle, turkey vulture, American robin, varied thrush, Steller's jay, several species of gull. Introduced birds are represented by the declining skylark; the most common native tree in North Saanich is Douglas-fir. The other common large conifers are western red cedar. Western hemlock is found. Pacific yew is a frequent understory tree; the arbutus is a large broadleaf evergreen species. Large deciduous trees are black cottonwood, bigleaf maple, red alder, Garry oak. Small deciduous species include bitter cherry, Pacific crab apple, Pacific dogwood, quaking aspen, Douglas maple, common hawthorn and willow.
The 2018 - 2022 council is: Mayor Geoff Orr Councillor Patricia Pearson Councillor Heather Gartshore Councillor Jack McClintock Councillor Brett Smyth Councillor Celia Stock Councillor Murray WeisenbergerThe next election is scheduled for October 15, 2022 following provincial law. All municipalities in British Columbia will hold elections on this date. Voters will vote for school board trustees and the mayor on the same ballot. Public schools serving North Saanich residents are operated by School District 63 Saanich; these include Deep Cove Elementary Schools, North Saanich Middle School. North Saanich can be accessed by highway on Highway 17 from Sidney or Vancouver. Victoria International Airport is located in the municipality, which offers daily service to Calgary, SeaTac, San Francisco, Toronto Pearson and hourly service to Vancouver from Air Canada Express; the airport offers seasonal services to Mexico and Hawaii, with talk about expansion to Europe or Asia. North Saanich has a float plane aerodrome near the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Pat Bay near the Airport.
This is Pat Bay Air's hub, which offers flights around Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Metro Vancouver. Public transit is provided by the Victoria Regional Transit System. North Saanich has 7 marinas; the highest concentration of marinas is on the southern coast, between Curteis Point and McDonald Park Road, near Parkland Secondary School. Ardmore: population 1,050 the entire neighbourhood is evenly dense. Ardmore contains the nine hole Ardmore Golf Course, it borders the Institute of Ocean Sciences to Pauquachin First Nation to the south. Cloake and Horth Hills: population 1,200 the densest area is uphill on Cloake Hill. Horth Hill Regional Park, managed by the CRD is located near the center; the park offers the second highest in North Saanich after Mount Newton. There are no commercial establishments in all of this neighbourhood, it is purely residential and forested, like much of the municipality; the north shore, the end of the Saanich Peninsula offers several beach accesses with views of the Satellite Channel, Mount Tuam on Saltspring Island and other surrounding islands.
Dean Park: population 3,200 is the most populous and dense neighbourhood in the municipality. It is located on the sloped eastern flank of Mount Newton, directly below John Dean Provincial Park. Below the hill with a high concentration of streets is where Kelset Elementary, the Panorama Recreation center and the McTavish Junction are located. Dean Park borders Central Saanich. Deep Cove: population 2,000 with the Coal Point and marina area most densely populated area. Along West Saanich Road between Clayton and Wain roads is; this area contains a firehall, gas station, the Deep Cove Market, a church and Deep Cove Elementary School. Central North Saanich: the population of this area is not well defined; the area is regarded as having several neighbourhoods within and is little known as a whole, associated neighbourhoods include Pat Bay, Sandown and the Eagle Ridge Estates. Central North Saanich contains the Airport, the Dunsmuir Lodge, the Institute of Ocean Sciences and the former
Ogden Point is a deep water port facility located in the southwestern corner of the city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Its location in the historic and beautiful city on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, by the Strait of Juan de Fuca not far from Vancouver and Seattle, US, has made it an attractive cruise ship destination, it serves as a ship repair and supply facility for cruise ships and other vessels such as deep sea cable laying ships. Ogden Point has a heliport with frequent service to Vancouver Harbour, Vancouver International Airport, Seattle; the port lies at the eastern entrance of Victoria Harbour. For smaller boats there is boat ramp for trailerable boats; the cruise ship facility is the busiest port of call in Canada and is scheduled to handle 245 ship visits in 2018, with more than 20 ships carrying up to 3,000 passengers each from ten cruise lines expected to call between late April and early October. Most visits are single day or evening visits from liners cruising to Alaska from Seattle, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, but there are cruises of the Pacific Northwest including Vancouver and/or Seattle.
Ogden Point was named after Peter Skene Ogden, a prominent trader and explorer for the Hudson's Bay Company. The piers at Ogden Point were built in the early 20th century by the city of Victoria in anticipation of a growth in shipping due the opening of the Panama Canal. In 1916 the US Hydrographic Office published a Coast Pilots guide that referred to the piers as the "Ocean Docks"; that edition of Coast Pilots mentioned that the breakwater south of Pier A was under construction in 1915. The breakwater was completed in 1916 and the piers were completed in 1918. In the century Victoria Machinery Depot built some of the first vessels for BC Ferries and other customers in the 1960s using Ogden Point for the larger ships. In 2001 the Norwegian Sky arrived from Seattle, becoming the first weekly cruise vessel to call on Ogden Point. In 2008, Ogden Point saw the arrival in excess of 380,000 passengers; the cruise ship terminal is considered an in transit port as presently no ships are home ported at this facility.
In 2008 the facility was extensively rebranded in the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority's red and black colour scheme. In 2009 Ogden Point saw the arrival of 228 cruise ships from a variety of cruise lines including Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Crystal Cruises as well as ResidenSea; these calls brought over 400,000 visitors to the city of Victoria between April 23 and October 14, 2009. The 12-hectare port facility has two finger piers designated Pier A and Pier B. Berths on each pier are designated South. South A extends for 335 metres, North A extends for 243 metres. Pier B berths were extended to 317 metres by installing a mooring dolphin in 2009; each berth can accommodate a vessel with a draft in excess of 10 metres at low tide. Although there are four berths, a maximum of three ships can be accommodated in port at any one time due to the close proximity of North A and South B. Canada Border Services Agency facilities are located at each pier.
Pier A houses a 9,290-square-metre warehouse, complete with cable ship spooling apparatus and cable storage facility. Ogden Point has break bulk cargo docks. Vessels up to 300 metres can be accommodated. Cruise ships calling at Ogden Point's Cruise Ship Terminal provide shore excursions for passengers and this may include tours of the Butchart Gardens, city tours, visits to Craigdarroch Castle, pub tours, Empress Hotel afternoon tea, whale watching, Victoria, horse-drawn trolley tours, many other venues. During the cruise season, services to guests include a shuttle bus service operated by Wilson's Transportation to provide guests an alternative to the 30-minute walk to downtown Victoria. Public buses stop along Dallas Street on their way to downtown Victoria. Taxi cabs and limousines are available onsite. Western Stevedoring is under contract from the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority to manage the facility and Cruise Terminal; the Camel Point heliport, is operated by Pacific Heliport Services and is located just northeast of Pier B.
For smaller boats there is boat ramp operated by the James Bay Anglers and is open to the public for use. Ogden Point has world-renowned cold water diving for any level of divers. Giant Pacific Octopus, Wolf Eels, Sea Anemones and multiple fish and crustacean species can be found at the shallowest depths. Multiple groups of reef balls have been placed in 2008 to study the migration of species from the break-wall outwards. Due to currents and other hazards found in any diving environment a discover local diving tour with a dive professional is advised. Victoria Harbour facilities Greater Victoria Harbour Authority "Ogden Point". BC Geographical Names. Pier A is at 48°24′54″N 123°23′24″W Pier B is at 48°25′00″N 123°23′23.6″W
Victoria International Airport
Victoria International Airport serves Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It is 12 nautical miles north northwest of Victoria on the Saanich Peninsula, with the bulk of the airport in North Saanich, a small portion of the airfield extending into Sidney; the airport is run by the Victoria Airport Authority. YYJ has many nonstop daily flights to Vancouver International Airport and Seattle, both of which are major airports serving many global routes. Additionally, Victoria International has nonstop service to Toronto, Calgary and several smaller cities in British Columbia and Yukon; the airport has seasonal nonstop service to several Mexican resort destinations. Victoria International Airport is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency. CBSA officers at this airport can handle aircraft with no more than 450 passengers, when unloaded from the aircraft in stages, or 120 normally. YYJ does not have United States customs and border preclearance, however many passengers fly first to Vancouver International Airport, which does have U.
S. preclearance. In 2018, YYJ served 2,048,627 passengers and had 120,936 aircraft movements, making it Canada's 11th busiest airport in terms of passengers, it was British Columbia's third busiest airport in terms of passengers and aircraft movements. Like most airports that are run by local authorities in Canada, YYJ charges an airport improvement fee for each outgoing passenger; as of December 2018, it was $15.00 per departing passenger. AIF fees are added to fares and collected automatically by most airlines. There are two popular locations for plane spotters; the first is at the end of Canora Road, on the south-east side of the airport, next to a small cemetery. A second, lesser-known location is an open field off of Mills Road, near the Mills Road and Meadland Road intersection on the northwest corner of the airport; the airport started in 1939 as a grass strip, was used as a military training airfield. During the early part of WWII, the airfield was used as Royal Air Force Station Patricia Bay, for training personnel for basic flying training, preparatory to returning them to the UK.
In 1942 the aerodrome was listed as RCAF Aerodrome - Patricia Bay, British Columbia at 48°39′N 123°26′W with a variation of 24 degrees E and elevation of 25 feet. The aerodrome was listed with three runways as follows: The airport is located beside Patricia Bay, due to the prevalence of flying boats at the time, proved to be an excellent location; the Department of Transport took over the airport in 1948. It was called Victoria Airport, many locals still refer to it as the "Pat Bay Airport". Trans-Canada Airlines began regular service in 1943; the last Royal Canadian Air Force unit left the airport in 1952. In the late 1980s the RCAF returned to the property when 443 Helicopter Squadron began operating CH-124 Sea King ship-borne anti-submarine helicopters from Victoria International Airport; the RCAF refers to 443 Squadron operations at the airport as the Patricia Bay Heliport. In 1959, the airport was renamed the "Victoria International Airport". In 1997, as part of a broad scale restructuring of airports across Canada, Transport Canada, gave operational control of the airport to the Victoria Airport Authority.
In 2000, the Victoria Airport Authority began the process of renovating and expanding the terminal to meet passenger needs. In 2002, the new "airside hold room" and the new "arrivals rotunda" were rebuilt. By 2005, the new "departures area" was completed. In May 2005, the federal government, which owns the land, announced a reduction in the rent paid by the Victoria Airport Authority; this will save $0.6 million Canadian each year and $12 million CAD over the life of the lease, 50 years. In September 2018, United Airlines announced that the daily United Express flight from Victoria to San Francisco would permanently end on 07 January 2019, concluding over a decade of daily non-stop service between the two cities; the main terminal has nine gates, organized as gates 1–2 and 4–10. Gates 1,2 and 9,10 are equipped with aircraft loading bridges. Gates 1,2,5 and 6 are used to handle international passenger arrivals. There are three luggage carousels: two located at the arrivals area for domestic passengers, one for international flights located inside the customs area.
As of December 1, 2010, time limited, ad supported Wi-Fi internet service provided by Telus is available terminal wide. Nearly all commercial flights at Victoria fly to domestic airports or to destinations in the United States. Seasonal scheduled flights by Air Transat, Sunwing Airlines, WestJet connect Victoria to tourist destinations in Mexico. For the Summer 2017 and 2019 seasons, Air Canada Rouge operated wide-body Boeing 767s on its daily flights to Toronto Victoria Airport Authority's 2008 master plan laid out a timeline of proposed changes to the airport. Full parallel taxiway E to runway 09/27. New taxiway exit from runway 09 to taxiway S. New maintenance facility and fire hall on the west side of the airport. First phase of apron IV expansion to accommodate interim demand. Extend approach lighting on runway 27 by 320 m. Additional terminal building public parking. Construct a bicycle/walking path around the perimeter of the airport property. Add two new passenger loading bridges. New military hangar to store new Royal Canadian Air Force Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclon
Greater Victoria is located in British Columbia, Canada, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. It is a cultural rather than political entity defined as the thirteen easternmost municipalities of the Capital Regional District on Vancouver Island as well as some adjacent areas and nearby islands; the Capital Regional District administers some aspects of public administration for the whole metro region. Greater Victoria consists of all land and nearby islands east of a line drawn from the southern end of Finlayson Arm to the eastern shore of Sooke Harbour, along with some lands on the northern shore of Sooke Harbour. Many places and institutions associated with Victoria such as the University of Victoria, Victoria International Airport, the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal, are outside the City of Victoria itself, which has an area of just 19.5 square kilometres on the southern tip of Greater Victoria. Victoria is the locality indicated in the mailing addresses of several CRD municipalities and localities adjacent to Victoria.
The central city of Victoria lends its name and cultural influence to many places and organizations in the metro region. There are 13 cities and district municipalities in Greater Victoria. "Core" municipalitiesThe City of Victoria, the District Municipalities of Saanich and Oak Bay, which are all adjacent to it. West ShoreThe cities of Colwood and Langford, the town of View Royal, the District Municipalities of Highlands and Sooke, which lie west of Esquimalt Harbour and Portage Inlet. Saanich PeninsulaThe District Municipalities of Central Saanich, North Saanich, parts of Saanich, the town of Sidney, which lie to the north of Victoria; this breakdown is mirrored by the three school districts in Greater Victoria. Greater Victoria School District #61 - Sooke School District #62 - Saanich School District #63 - Greater Victoria is the southernmost urban area in Western Canada; this list is similar to, but not identical with, that used by the Greater Victoria real estate sales industry. Neighbourhoods with official status are italicized.
Others may have no official definition, hence other lists of neighbourhoods in the Victoria area may differ. Other sources may give different boundaries as well; the Greater Victoria region has a combined population of 367,770 according to the 2016 Canadian census. The region comprises two of the fifteen most populous municipalities in British Columbia; the Canadian Census ranks Greater Victoria as the 15th largest metropolitan area in Canada, by population. The combined population of the cities, unincorporated areas and Indian Reserves in the region are as follows: Saanich 114,148 Victoria 85,792 Langford 35,342 Oak Bay 18,094 Esquimalt 17,655 Colwood 16,859 Central Saanich 16,814 Sooke 13,001 Sidney 11,672 North Saanich 11,249 View Royal 10,408 Indian Reserves 6,150 Metchosin 4,708 Juan de Fuca Electoral Area 4,860 Highlands 2,225 In comparison to the Lower Mainland, the region does not have a great deal of racial diversity. Most of the population is of European descent. A substantial community of those of Chinese descent has existed in Greater Victoria since the Fraser Gold Rush of 1858-60, which saw the first significant influx, arriving first via San Francisco directly from China.
There is a substantial First Nations population whose ancestors have lived in the area for thousands of years. Numerous First Nations reserves, forming distinct communities, exist in the region — on the Saanich Peninsula, in Esquimalt, in the Western Communities — although the majority of the First Nations population live off-reserve; the largest ethnic groups in Greater Victoria, according to the 2016 census, are: English - 140,510 Scottish - 98,475 Canadian - 86,000 Irish - 73,170 German - 50,440 French - 38,775 Ukrainian - 19,410 Chinese - 17,825 Dutch - 17,790 First Nations - 15,430 Welsh - 14,140 Polish - 13,610 Norwegian - 12,130 Italian - 11,665 Swedish - 9,380 East Indian - 9,180 Russian - 8,565 American - 8,485 Metis - 7,135 Filipino - 6,650The same information, although grouped more geographically, is below. The largest sub-grouping is included. Many Victoria Region municipalities have their own fairs: Oak Bay's Tea Party, Esquimalt's Buccaneer Days, Sidney's Sidney Days, Sooke's Sooke Days, Western Communities' Luxton Rodeo, Central Saanich's Saanich Fair.
The Saanich Fair is the largest of all the Greater Victoria local fair venues. The Saanich Fair has the largest number of attendees of all. There is a wide variety of entertainment and recreational activities; the mild coastal climate ensures less extreme weather changes. Outdoor and indoor recreational areas are abundant throughout the region; the Rifflandia Music Festival takes place downtown in mid to late September. The Luminara Lantern Festival is a regionally popular cultural/artistic outdoor activity that draws thousands of visitors to Beacon Hill Park; the Victoria Tall Ships Festival showcase sailing vessels and the sailing life. The Victoria Symphony performs over 100 concerts a year, including the renowned Symphony Splash, an annual free concert in the Inner Harbour on the August Sunday preceding B. C Day; the orchestra is on a barge playing to an audie