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| Prince Rupert's Airport has seen reduced flight volumes since Air Canada restarted air service to the city in June |
The challenges facing the Prince Rupert Airport made for some discussion last week during the course of the Monday Council session of October 5th, with the topic making for two brief moments of review at the meeting.
The First coming from the results of the August Financial Variance report, which continued to show some of the hit on the city's financials from COVID.
During her presentation of the August report last week, the City's CFO Corinne Bomben made no mention of the Airport's actual operations, and as is often the case at Council, there were not any follow up questions.
Ms. Bomben's report for Council which is included as part of the Agenda did however did indicate that decreases at the Airport, like those of the Cow Bay Marina, Recreation Department and Prince Rupert Transit had been significant this year.
It also made note of the anticipated revenues for the Airport Ferry for 2020 of $1,287,000, a projection that seems somewhat un-reachable at this point, with revenues realized of only $367,322 as of the end of August.
As for the Budget for the Airport Ferry, the city has spent $1,348,000 to date, having projected expenditures of $2,844,000.
Later in the Monday session Councillor Randhawa asked some questions of Ms. Bomben inquiring about the prospect of additional flights for the community.
As part of his overview, Mr. Randhawa made note of concerns he has heard from residents of the low number of flights currently available locally; something which as he noted is of particular concern as winter approaches and road conditions become challenging for those using the Terrace airport.
"We can ask, but it's not going to drive what Air Canada does, so the Airport authority I know has been very, very receptive to want to have seven days and then of course get back to two flights a day, cause that will help their organization, but presently Air Canada is the one that is driving that "-- Chief Financial Officer Corrine Bomben
As was highlighted last week, Prince Rupert has seen a reduced schedule in place since Air Canada resumed its flights to the community in June, with YPR currently hosting just five flights a week.
It's a schedule of travel options that pales significantly to the volume of flights that are currently offered by airlines at the Terrace facility.
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| The weekly commercial flights departing and arriving at the Terrace-Kitimat airport |
Council has not had a representative of the Prince Rupert Airport Authority speak in public to Council in a a number of years, despite frequent calls for more public overview of its work.
So, perhaps the moment is a timely one for a wider overview of Airport operations and the impact of COVID on the local facility; as well as what, if any inquiries that have been made of West Jet or Pacific Coastal Airlines to see if Prince Rupert can offer any incentives to bring some competition to the local market.
Increasing the volume of flights to the city would seem to be a goal that the city should be pursuing, with the city currently on a limited schedule of just five flights a week, it does seem to call into question the wisdom of a planned relocation of the airport ferry from its current location at Fairview Bay, to the proposed dock at the Kwinitsa Station location.
Something which would seem to be an extravagant plan for the moment, considering the still unknown cost to build the new dock, the low usage that the Airport ferry is currently finding and the low volume of revenue that is currently being generated.
You can review Councillor Randhawa's Airport themes and Ms. Bomben's replies from the City's Video archive starting at the one hour, four minute mark.
For more notes on last weeks City Council session see our Council Timeline Feature here.
Further background on the Prince Rupert Airport can be found from our Transportation archive page here.
Why would the city worry about a silly little thing like revenue loss. At the start of covid the city made the important cut of not replacing a city planner, and cutting lawns at a reduced schedule. That was about it.
ReplyDeleteThe city went on to say we are fortunate to have the Legacy Fund to draw on. Makes a person wonder when we are going to look at for cuts. How about starting with CN station demolition before the city gets us into another business. The city’s job should be infrastructure. If there was money to be made let a private developer take the risk. There is never a guarantee of reward.