Airport loan repayment plan, to cover off portion of city's airport transportation requirement this year

Airport Ferry users can rest easy, there will be no direct increase for the crossing of Prince Rupert harbour to the Digby Island airport, however, we imagine somewhere along the path of travel out of Prince Rupert, airport users will be adding to the city's coffers.

 The city found a creative way to gain additional money to put towards the airport transportation situation, clawing back in effect some money from the airport for use in this years budget.

During the Tuesday evening review of the latest Budget planning, Ms. Corinne Bomben the city's Financial Officer went to great lengths to explain that the City would not be introducing a fare increase for the airport ferry but rather, would be tapping some of the airport's loan repayment and directing it towards the transportation needs.

The additional four dollars to be used by the city will be accessed by the Airport through their planned airport user fee, which is to be put in place to pay for the renovation plans for the Digby Island location.

In addition to the collection of money through the Airport, City Council is also giving some thought to achieving savings on transportation by reducing two runs on the Airport schedule, which currently are only used by airport staff.

The rather low impact hit on the airport was most likely designed to try and stem the potential flow of passengers that might be inclined to travel to Terrace over the spring and summer months should the cost access to the Digby Island airport prove prohibitive.

A situation that would have an impact on airport projections as it could cut into the Prince Rupert Airport revenue stream.

The transportation aspect of the Airport's plan for the revised budget plan can be found on the City's Video Archive the discussion starts in the first thirty minutes of Tuesday's Special Council session

For more items on the Prince Rupert Airport see our Transportation Archive page, we also have more items of interest on City Council available on our Council Archive page.