Ahhh; The good old numbers game. 2008 417,484 passengers, 2007, 407,300, Increase 10,184 per year, or 28 passengers per day.

Airport Improvement Fee of $15.00 applies to outbound passengers only, so we have revenue of 5092 times $15.00 = $76,380.00 per year divide by 365 days per year and you have daily revenue of $209.00 divide that by approx 10 flights per day and you have an increase of $20.00 per flight.

Not so impressive when you look at it in detail is it? Not much revenue for the Airport Authority with a increase of 10,184 per year. The increase in passengers would not be enough to warrant any additional flights, and therefore the Airport Authority would not get any additional revenue from landing and take off fees.

On the other hand the Airlines themselves would gross an additional $3,000,000.00 in revenue, assuming the average cost of a ticket would be around $300.00.

Total revenue from Airport Improvement Fees would be approx half of the 417484 @ $15.00 for roughly $3,131,130.00, however it would more likely be closer to $2,500,000.00, which will go toward paying for the new terminal expansion, new parking lot expansion, and of course the new runway expansion.

The Airport Authority has to find a way to substantially increase its passenger totals, and increase its total number of Aircraft landing and taking off, or it will never be able to pay down its debt, or pay its leasing arrangements with the Federal Government, which they are supposed to start paying in 2011.

I dont know how they could do this under normal circumstances, and I certainly do not know how they will do it, considering we are going into a recession for the next two years.

Hey Pal

If you're such a whiz on the calculator, why don't you take over Mr. Houg's old job?

Surely your skills in taking a good news story (an increase in passenger traffic in a time of regional economic downturn) and turning it into yet another Eeyor boo-hoo-hoo would be appreciated.

You're just the kind of guy that this town needs right now.

My guess is that $15.00 AIF will turn into $20.00 soon.

How's that, Moses?

Wouldn't surprise me PG Man, and it wouldn't bother me a bit.

I've got no problem with the users of a service paying for that service.

Besides, half the people that moan and groan about the AIF buy a pack of smokes (at about $10) a day, often on their way to the casino.

I've got a problem if that $20 is going to pay down debt on failed airport business initiatives.

In the airport world, $15 is already a high AIF. Somebody found a $20 AIF in Toronto... but I guess we're all used to getting gouged around here.

Moses. My point was that insofar as the Airport Authority is concerned this increase in passengers for 2008 does not mean any significant increase in revenue for them. In fact it is a very small increase, and will do nothing to alleviate their economic situation.

These articles get reported as news, but are for the most part **News releases** put out by Companies to highlight certain so called positive situations. They rarely if ever include the downside or the other side of the story. As an example why wouldnt they have a head line like.,

**Airport Authority AIF Revenues increase $20.00 per flight in 2008** This would be true, however it is not quite what you would call a news story, hence the hype about the increase in passengers even though they had all kinds of problems.

As I said it is a numbers game, and doesnt give you the real story. They are in a big hurry to get this spin out to the public, however when asked why Hoag left, were told that this information is confidential, but it had nothing to do with the running of the Airport.

Seems rather selective to me.

If I had Hoags job, there would not have been a Terminal Expansion, a Parking Lot Expansion, and certainly not a Runway expansion. These projects to date have cost Taxpayers in excess of $45 Million dollars, and have not produced $1.00 in extra revenue. In fact I would not have even considered setting up an Airport Authority, which is just a Federal Government gimmick to have Taxpayers, and Travellers pay for the operation of an airport that they already owned, and were already paying for through taxes.

Airport Authoritys are a diabolical scheme put forward by the Federal Government that in reality is another form of taxes. It works good in big Airports like Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, because International passengers pay a big portion of the costs, however it doesnt work in a small town like Prince George which has a very small passenger base.

Dont be confused between a user fee by a Government entity like an Airport Authority and someone who smokes, and gambles. The first is imposed on you by the Government, while the other two you do voluntarily.

"If I had Hoags job, there would not have been a Terminal Expansion, a Parking Lot Expansion, and certainly not a Runway expansion."

And the Board had nothing to do with setting the direction and giving the marching orders to staff? Those are pretty big steps that go far beyond operating the aiport and making recommmendations on planning.

Also "however when asked why Hoag left, were told that this information is confidential, but IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RUNNING OF THE AIRPORT."

I must have missed that last part, or is that your interpretation Palopu?

I beeive that I read it in another news outlet.

The Airport Authority is the board, and I agree, they give the marching orders, in any event they are already starting to use the recession as an excuse for this venture not proceeding as originally planned. Seems to me all was done and in place before the recession started, however the recession is convenient to cover Management failures.

The same thing applies to the CN Containers Terminal in Prince George, people are now alluding that because of the recession this facility is not performing at the level it should be. The fact is they had very few containers loaded in Prince George to Prince Rupert in 2008, because shippers continued to load through the Port of Vancouver. It had nothing to do with the recession., Again, it appears that it was a bad decision on the part of Management.

We will see more clearly in a year or so just how viable these operations are.

The Container Facility in Prince Rupert was a good decision for Prince Rupert, Maher Terminals, and CN Rail, and has worked quite well for 2008. They averaged about 6 trains of 250 40ft containers per week, however it is debatable whether they can increase this business in view of the recession, and aggressive competition from other West coast ports.