Sounds like he has a plan... they say the sign of a great leader is one who plans for his replacement.

Can't help but wonder if this has Horizon Air written all over it?

did a good job with the airport.I hope the next leader follows with the plans and keep moving the airport forward.

Hm, not a lot of details to be had on this story. So we're left with speculation as to why Mr. Hoeg suddenly decides to leave.

One can only guess it had something to do with the Airport's business direction with respect to the runway expansion. We still have yet to see any tangible economic benefits from the expansion, time will tell if it was worthwhile or not.

I'm pretty sure that Mark will do a good job. He is pretty level headed man. Stieg did his job, and did it very well. No very many people could have done what he did and get away with it. He took a Federally run operation and took it through into a enterprising private business. It takes a lot insight to do that.

Stieg, hope you resurface soon.

When the public information for leaving is as kurt as it is, you can bet your bottom dollar there are some reasons that people do not want to discuss publicly.

This is not a departure that can state that he is leaving because he feels that he has taken the airport to the next level of operation, that he has been here for 16 or so years, and that he has an opportunity elsewhere to take another airport to that next level before he retires.

In this article it sates that it is a "personal" matter. The Citizen reported that Jim Blake referred to it as a "personnel" matter. It can, of course, be both.

As with all such things, people do not work in isolation. There are many people that work in such organizations and each has a story to tell. Some people in the community will know some of those stories.

The apparent reason for leaving based on rumour mills have little to do with the speculation of the comments made so far.

The Prince George Airport was the last of 26 Airport Authorities set up by the Federal Government in Canada. Prince George because of the small number of yearly passengers etc; just managed to meet the Federal Government criteria for an Airport Authority.

All assets of the Airport are owned by the Federal Government and are leased to the Airport Authority on a yearly basis. The Prince George Authority will begin to pay the Federal Government lease payments starting in 2011.

The Prince George Authority collects approx $2 million per year in Airport Improvement Fees. ( A charge you pay each time you fly out of Prince George) Originally when the Authority was set up this fee was $5.00 then increased to $10.00 and now sits at $15.00. Money collected through AIF has to be spent on improvements to the Airport.

Anyone who thinks that this is a enterprising private business is just fooling themselves. The Airport Authority is just barely getting by and I suspect that they are border line broke.

Passengers in and out of Prince George for the year 2007 was 407,300 and for 2006 394,407 which was a 12,893 increase, however I suggest that the figures for 2008 (Not yet available) will show a decrease. Now with the recession we are in I expect that it will get worse.

There was millions spent on the Terminal Building expansion, which is never used except for once per week for 14 weeks for direct flights to Mexico. The rest of the time it sits idle. The parking lot was increased from 500 spaces to 800 spaces at a big cost, however at any given moment there are no more than 4/500 spaces being used.

The Airport Authority received $11 Million dollars from the Federal Government, and $11 Million from the Provincial Government for the runway expansion. In addition it borrowed $11 Million from Northern Trust Initiave to be paid back with a yearly interest of 5%. To date I beleive they owe somewhere over $1 Million in interest.
In addition they owe CIBC somewhere in the area of $5 Million dollars.

At this time it does not appear that there will be any big increase in revenue from the parking, terminal building,rentals, or the runway expansion, and therefore I dont know how they expect to pay down their debt and pay their leasing charges that will begin in 2011.

The Vancouver Airport Authority pays the Federal Government in excess of $50 Million dollars per year in leasing fees. This is significanly more money than the Federal Government made when it ran the Airport. Plus all improvemnts to the Airport in the last 10 years have been paid for through AIF charges.

If the Prince George Airport Authority fails then the running of the Airport will revert to the Federal Government.

Once again, this can hardly be construed as a enterprising private business.

That may be something for a new manager to consider if he or she is applying for the job. I doubt that is the reason this manager is leaving.

This is like a shell game. You have to keep your eyes on the ball.

To the editor, Personnel or personal? I have been told personnel, which is completely different.

""Stieg did his job, and did it very well.""

You obviously didn't have to deal with those new parking meters in -30 weather...ever try to buy a magazine at the PG airport?? Millions spent on expansion and people still have to walk across the tarmac in the rain to board a plane??? If that's a job well done I'll be a monkeys uncle.

So is it personal, or personnel?

Maybe Colin Kinsley will get the job.