Barry Rempel, president and CEO of the WAA, wants to avoid the mistakes made by other airport authorities when they unveiled new buildings of their own in recent years. He says by not communicating with various stakeholders throughout the construction process, people—primarily travelers—were left up to their own devices to envision what the facilities would look like once they were finished, and how they would work.

“People left the airports disappointed because their expectations had not been realized,” he says. “The consistent theme we heard (from other airport authorities) was we needed to communicate and engage the community with what was to come, to mold and crystallize in people’s minds what they could expect. If we don’t tell them what to expect, they’ll all come with different ideas and they could be confused their first day in the building.”

That won’t be a problem in Winnipeg. Rempel says the WAA’s multi-media information campaign will result in passengers walking into the new building in early 2010, looking around for a second and knowing exactly where to go—as if somehow they’d been there before.

The goal of each billboard is to drive people to one of two websites. The first one is the WAA’s main site (waa.ca), which is geared towards the 40-plus crowd. In addition to flight arrival and departure information, it features pictures of construction activity, diagrams of the building and press releases of the latest developments. It also informs passengers how the construction may impact their departure or arrival plans.

The second is James2010.ca, a blog-based site targeting the 15-to 40 year-old demographic. Its URL is designed to honor James Armstrong Richardson, the Canadian aviation pioneer after whom the airport is named.

Rempel says this site was created in response to feedback from numerous focus groups who said the WAA was doing a good job of communicating with older travellers but was missing out on younger people. They think differently, interact differently and use the Internet in ways older people don’t understand or couldn’t imagine, the focus groups said.

The James2010.ca site is essentially divided into two sections. The first asks visitors to tell the WAA what an airport means to them. The second is a photo album full of videos and photos of various elements visitors like about the Winnipeg airports and other airports around the world.

James2010.ca also has a number of other interesting features, including time-lapsed video of the new terminal’s construction from a tower camera, an overhead view of the world’s smallest international airport on Akaiami Island in the South Pacific, a video highlighting the best Winnipeg has to offer in entertainment, tourism and cultural activities, samples from focus groups, and aerospace and airport news from around the world. In short, if you’re interested in the new airport or aviation in general, James2010.ca is the site for you.

It also has a blog master named Carly, who makes new postings every day. She wanders both the bustling construction site and the outgoing facility, posting pictures and text about anything and everything you could possibly want to know about an airport.

Rempel says this site is particularly important because its target market represents those who will use the new terminal building the most in the coming years.

“They’re our future frequent flyers,” he says, noting since its launch in January, James2010.ca has had 110,000 distinct hits from surfers in 75 countries.

Rempel says the next phase for its websites is the “we heard you” campaign, where the WAA will spell out how it’s addressing the hopes, expectations and concerns of its travellers. Eventually, the sites will feature detailed diagrams of what the new building will look like, and where you’ll get your luggage, buy your tickets and go through security.

“When you finally get to the airport, there will be no surprises,” he says. "The best thing a customer can say about an experience at an airport is they didn't remember it. That's because everything worked and they felt safe."