“We are enhancing the airport’s position as a key international air cargo hub,”  said Defense Minister Peter MacKay. He added that Atlantic Canada was the only region in the country without an airport runway long enough to accommodate the largest freighters.

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter said the extension would help the province’s seafood industry. “Once you get more traffic coming in and out, the ability to be able to piggyback on those flights is much greater,” he said. “You get lower costs, you get better routing into markets, particularly into Europe.”

Dexter said the airport was as important as the Port of Halifax in moving cargo in and out of the region.

Halifax moved 29,000 tonnes of cargo in 2009, and the airport authority expects air cargo traffic to grow between 85 and 130 percent over the next decade.