Bring on the space shuttle!! Then listen to the whining!
Congrats, now build the road and look out!!

The airport should send a request to Airbus to sent the A380 to Prince George as a promotion to the airport.

Ready for what?

Ready to bring back the jets and send the damn prop planes packing, I hope.

acrider54 has it right. Ready for what? This is a pipe dream to end all pipe dreams. It has cost us $36 Million dollars, and we do not have any indication from any major airline that they have any interest in landing and refueling in Prince George.

Even if they did land and refuel, so what? Shell oil would sell some gas, and the Airport Authority would pick up some landing and take off fees, however it would be over 100 years before we ever got our $36 Million back.

In order for Air Cargo Freight to be handled through Prince George, major airlines would have to duplicate operations that they have already established in other parts of the world. Duplication means an increase in costs, whats the chance of that happening?

This plan is based over a 15 to 25 year period, which means that all those involved will be long gone from the Airport Authority and from Municipal, Regional, Provincial, and Federal politics, and therefore there will never be any accountability for those responsible for this fiasco.

Most people who are aware of what is transpiring will be dead before the chickens come home to roost.

Palopoo, you are probably right! They should have just left well enough alone. Let Kelowna or Edmonton have the money. We should not have tried anything. Just roll over as forestry is sucking. Diversify? For what? Should still be wooden sidewalks and hitchin posts! Life would be so simple!

Hate to see anyone try! Sounds like you have done your homework on this one- makes them all look silly doesn't it? They should have just asked you and they would have lots of time and money.

I've got no problem with anyone trying, but how about getting some airlines signed up before the project starts and figuring out the economic benefit? Is that unreasonable?

This whole "Build it and they will come" philosophy is nice, but risky. And who assumes all of the risk?

So far, we have nothing but a nice long $36M runway. I hope it works out.

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=788055

This link is to an article that discusses the airport expansion and some of the serious hurdles that it will face. It discusses issues that I have never heard mentioned locally before.

Like BC Coastal fish farms this is an issue that the federal candidates should be discussing. We should demand some attention to these issues here in BC before the election ends and everything goes back to status quo.

Lets hope the dreams of the airport will become reality. Have to take chances in life to make dreams come true

Interesting article BiBC... but surely you will not have any problems with Ottawa ??

After all, you have the dynamic H&H team to support the area... creating that free trade zone almost overnight !!

And... with Ms Palin going to the co-pilot's seat in DC pretty soon, it would seem unlikely that the euphoric Anchorage folks would even notice your boys stealing a little milk thru the fence... don'tcha think ??

But most importantly.... who was the nimrod that forgot to add the extra 51 feet to the runway ???? Jeeezeee!!!!

:-)

V.

red2b. They dont ask people like me because the answer would not be what they are looking for. I would have had them come up with something to indicate how they plan to get these planes here, how they plan to take the business away from Anchorage Alaska (Long established since 1926) etc; etc; etc;. They are far better off asking people like you because then they can avoid any fiscal responsibility and just enjoy themselves at the expense of the tax payer.

This money came $11 million from the Federal Government who just happens to own the Airport and leases it to the Airport Authority.


$11 Million from the Provincial Government who got the money from the sale of BC Rail.

$11 Million the Airport Authority borrowed from the Northern Trust Initiative which has to be repaid with interest pegged to the rate of inflation.

If the Runway Expansion and the so called Cargo business turns out to be a flop then the $36 Million was just wasted. What good is a 11,400 foot runway if you dont use it?

This venture is a longshot at best, and wouldnt have even been considered if Prince George had not become an Airport Authority. We now have an expanded Terminal Building with Canada Customs that will be used for approx 6 weeks of the year for Charter flights from Mexico., We have expanded the Airport parking facilities from 500 spaces to 800 spaces, however at any give moment only 400 spaces are being used, and we will now have a long strip of runway that will be be totally under utilized, but will require snow removal and maintenance on a regular basis.

If it wasnt for the upcoming Federal, and Provincial elections I doubt if this money would have been allocated to such a high risk venture.

We need money to be invested into something that creates jobs, like livestock, root vegetables, etc; We could build massive greenhouses to grow tomatoes like they do in Vancouver and sell them into the USA. These greenhouses could be heated by the beetle killed timber at a cheap rate which would allow is to be competative for years to come.

Putting the money into a cement and asphalt slab is not the best use of the money.

In any event its a done deal now, so we will just have to wait and see what happens,. After these elections there will be little or no money available for anything else so we are stuck with what we have.

I understand that it is claimed that the air freighters can save/make an extra $25k by stopping in PG. This is arrived at by adding the extra kilo's of payload and some fancy math on fuel pricing in US dollars.

So let's assume the real number is something like only $5,000 saved/made. Any airline that doesn't stop in PG is going to have to take $5,000 less per flight to stay competitive or go broke. PG is obviously going to be a real fly in the ointment and make some enemies.

Therefore I am surprised that Papa hasn't identified the real danger to the PG Airport. Lots of fixed assets in Anchorage are going to be worthless overnight, and the only way out has to be a US government subsidy to the airlines that bypass PG. Lots of highly placed people around the world are going to try and break PG before the airport starts getting popular.

PG is going to see new air freight operators jumping into the businss and making PG their brass ring. This airport stuff is going to be fun Papalou!

Yama.

1. These airlines in addition to flying Cargo to and from the USA to Asia, also supply cargo to and from the state of Alaska, which is a big part of their business. Any cargo planes that route through Prince George would not be able to participate in this business.

2. The major Air Lines have Pilot Domiciles in Alaska. This allows pilots to live in Alaska and fly either to Asia or to the Continental USA. We are talking about hundreds of pilots, to service the 700 hundred wide body cargo jets that land and take off from Anchorage each week. Not to mention the domestic Airlines and pilots.

3. If Airlines stop in Prince George to refuel its true that they could take a heavier load of cargo to Asia, however on the return trip the opposite is true and Airlines would have to decrease cargo weight from Asia to make room for more fuel to get to Prince George. In addition there is no freight in Prince George to load into these planes to top up the cargo.

4. Anchorage has major distribution facilities for Major carriers like UPS, Fed Ex, DHL, Korean Air, Japan Air, Etc; Etc; to suggest that a few people in the City of Prince George, with little or no experience on the world trans;portation stage are going to take this business away from Anchorage and relocate it in Prince George is a bit of a stretch.

5. Air Freight is a highly competitive business and contrary to popular beleive the profits are marginal. Most if not all cargo space in contracted to the Major players and there is little or no room for any new players to enter the field.

6. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger plane is being ;produced as we speak. This plane can fly from New York to Bejing non-stop, and therefore it is only a matter of time before Cargo jets will be doing the same thing, which eliminates the need for refueling,.

7. In order to make a profit in any business you must decrease you costs and increase your volume. The Anchorage Airport is operating at close to capacity at 700 wide body cargo jets per week, and that is where you want to be to maximize your productivity. To suggest that the Prince George Airport could be competitive with 3 or 4 planes ;per day stopping to refuel is ludicrous. We will have no more impact on Anchorage than a flea has on an elephants butt.