Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members. Thank you for having me here today to showcase our unique business model at Abbotsford airport and how we've been playing a role in the movement of goods and people.
In 1996, we had 3,000 passengers, and our biggest revenue source as a line item as an airport was raspberries grown on the airfield. In 1997, we assumed ownership and operations of the airport of the city of Abbotsford, and we were given a mandate: You have to grow the airport, you have very little borrowing power, you basically have to live within your own revenue stream and you can't cost the taxpayers of Abbotsford any money.
Shortly after the transfer, a company called WestJet said they wanted to service Abbotsford, and we brought a maintenance building to the marketplace. We didn't have a terminal building. WestJet then basically came to the marketplace. We had free parking and very low aeronautical fees, and WestJet helped us move the needle from 1997 to 2003 in a fast way. We stimulated the marketplace and shifted people from cars over to planes. Stimulation was happening. There was a win for the consumer: free parking and low fares.
From 2004 to 2015, the needle wasn't moving for us for various reasons, and we started studying the international marketplace. Ultra-low-cost carriers were making a move globally. We saw an opportunity that someone was going to get to the marketplace. We worked with our airline partners. We worked with Enerjet, which today is Lynx. We worked with NewLeaf Travel, which today is Flair. We worked with our partner WestJet. We went to them and asked, “What can we do to move the needle?”
In 2013, there were about 700,000 Canadians crossing the border to Bellingham. What could we do to bring back and repatriate these folks and give Canadians more options from their own country to see our fascinating, beautiful country? We came to the agreement that we would become an ultra-low-cost airport that simply took the fundamentals of ultra-low-cost carriers and plunked them into an airport.
Our core business is running runways, taxiways, leasing land for direct investments to aerospace companies, and running a Costco warehouse type of building. Gregg Saretsky, the former CEO of WestJet, used to call us the Costco of airports—high-value, volume priced. From there, we aligned our business model, and we enabled and empowered our airlines to go out to the marketplace, offer a product that wasn't available, stimulate the business, grow the market share for Canadians and give them the opportunity to have accessible air travel.
The numbers, I have shared with you. We had 490,000 passengers in 2015, 530,000 in 2016, 677,000 in 2017 and 842,000 in 2018. We broke the million mark in 2019. COVID hit us and all airports and airlines hard. We did have 315,000 in 2020 and 515,000 in 2021, but 2022 was the big breakout year—back to 2019 levels. We were one of the first to recover daily, weekly, monthly and annually, and last year we had a banner year.
With that in mind, last year was a record-breaking year. Most of our fares were in the double digits domestically—$49 to $79. We stimulated the marketplace. There was a significant demand for stimulation. We were turning into the Vegas of Canada in many ways. Our parking lot would fill up Thursdays and start emptying out Mondays. People were flying to Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg, and even transcontinentally all the way to Toronto. Something the airlines, our airline partners, had not seen before is the stimulation of four- or five-day travel for leisure within domestic Canada.
I believe we can make domestic Canada more resilient, which we showcased during COVID. Domestic travel was the first to come back. I believe that we can make it more year-round, but it's about the ecosystem on the airport and off the airport. Low fares can only do so much. They need a matching ecosystem on and off the airport. You can't have high hotel accommodation, high-cost ground transportation and low fares. They need a matching ecosystem. We believe we offer that to our airline partners in Flair and WestJet, and the numbers showcase that the demand for stimulation is there.
The ultra-low-cost carrier model is global and it is showing growth. It is like a dollar store. If you don't have a dollar store, not everyone can go upmarket. Ultra-low-cost carriers bring a product that is repetitive. You take multiple trips. You see loved ones multiple times a year. They stimulate the greater economy and the movement of goods and people.
We've already had one dollar store close. We need to sustain the current airlines. I believe the volumes are there between Porter, Air Transat, Flair, WestJet and Air Canada. If they can stay in the marketplace and deliver the aircraft orders they have into the marketplace, we will continue to make travel accessible and affordable for all Canadians so they can see our wonderful nation year-round.
The other important item is skills development. There was a shortage of pilots, but on top of the shortage of pilots, the shortness of maintenance, repair and overhaul technicians is immense as well. We need the whole ecosystem to be aligned on airfield, off airport and within aerospace aviation.
Aerospace jobs bring a multiplier to the economy. These are companies in Canada doing work that's global. They're bringing opportunities here. I believe we can continuously use our airport's aviation and aerospace to keep us competitive globally—