YVR has both domestic and international terminals. These must be isolated from each other because security requirements require arriving international passengers to go through customs before being mixed with domestic passengers. So a flight traveling from Hong Kong to YVR to Toronto has to arrive at an international gate, where its passengers deplane. It then has to taxi to a domestic gate to take on new domestic passengers, therefore increasing ground time, congestion, and coordination and planning along the apron.
But YVR created a way for an international flight to land at domestic gates, deplane its passengers, and allow these passengers to head to Canada customs in complete isolation. Domestic passengers can then be loaded onto the same plane almost instantly.
This concept is helping YVR attract more airline traffic and become a central hub for transfer flights. The recently completed domestic terminal project, called A-B Connector, is the first of a number of projects that are kick-starting this infrastructure improvement.