YXS Annual Report Shows Dollars and Passenger Traffic Down

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 06:29 PM

l-r Airport Communications Manager Mike Davis, Todd Doherty Manager Aviation Services, Board Director Don Gould, Director Mike Tkachuk look on as Board Treasurer Ron Epp goes over numbers in the annual report

Prince George, B.C. – The Prince George Airport Authority made money last year, but not as much as in 2007.

The bottom line finished with a net gain of $678,978.00. That’s about a million less than in 2007 when the bottom line was $1.674 million.

Why the difference?

About half of that million dollar difference was eaten up in salaries and employee benefits in 2008. That includes extra overtime, and then there was that severance package to Stieg Hoeg, the GM who left after 16 years of service. No one wants to say just how much money he was paid, other than to comment it was a “big chunk” of the $482 thousand dollars extra paid in 2008.

There was a further $160 thousand in set up and business expenses for Horizon Air’s brief stay, and lots of dollars spent on trade shows and travel aimed at picking up business for the new runway and developing Prince George Airport as a tech stop.

The year was not easy, as Airport Authority Board Chair Jim Blake notes first airlines were hit with sky rocketing fuel prices, which resulted in the loss of Horizon Air, and the cancellation of the Air Canada Jazz direct fight between P.G. and Calgary. Blake is hopeful the Prince George to Calgary flight will be resurrected, “It is something we have been working on, but I doubt anything would happen until at least the fall.” He also thanked Air Canada and West Jet for switching to smaller Dash 8 planes during the runway closure in September saying the switch cost both airlines money.

YXS hit a record high for passenger numbers in 2008 (417,484) most of that traffic came before the world economy crashed in September. The passenger traffic numbers for this year are not encouraging as Blake says passenger traffic is down 14% over last year.

“It has been a year where we were very focused on one project, the expansion of the runway” says Blake “now it’s time to take a fresh look, and we want to reconnect with the people who use our Airport everyday, in good times and bad. We want to improve our relationships with our carriers, our staff, tenants, security, we’re all a part of the Prince George Airport.”

The annual report features some of the stories of the people who use YXS , the employees, families heading out for vacation, the arrival of friends, the tearful goodbyes, the excitement of children, each story ends with “What’s Your Story?”

The Airport will soon launch a new website which will carry on with that theme of recognizing the people who work at or travel through Prince George Airport .

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Posted on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 06:29 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Wolfie on May 13 2009 7:31 PM

Maybe now that the improvements are done, they can get rid of the Airport Improvement Fee.

Of course that won't happen. If there weren't more unnecessary improvements to plan, then half these guys would be out of jobs! It's a chicken and egg story with these AIFs... are the fees the result of improvements that are really needed, or are the "improvements" the result of needing something to spend the AIF on, keeping the big wigs in a job?

Of course Prince George isn't alone in this, it's the same story across the country.

Posted by: Palopu on May 13 2009 8:13 PM

You got that right Wolfie. They have to spend the money on improvements (necessary or not) or they have to reduce or eliminate the Airport Improvement Fees.

They borrowed $11 Million from the Northern Trust Initiative Fund (BC Rail Money) for the expansion to the runway. This money has to be paid back over the next few years, unless they renegotiate the loan. I expect that they will use the AIF money for the pay back, so there is little chance of the fee going down.

In addition they have other debt that is coming due, and they also have to start paying lease payments to the Federal Government for all the facilities starting in 2011. I cant for the life of me see how they can meet all these commitments, especially if revenues are going into a tail spin.,

At the end of the day, if they go broke, the Airport and all facilities return to the Federal Government who would be responsible for running the Airport.

Posted by: BCRacer on May 13 2009 8:33 PM

Gee, what happened to...
if we build it they might come...
like I said before ...
and maybe they won't and
they aren't....
but they pulled off a good scam in my opinion...more to come!!!!!

Posted by: Wolfie on May 13 2009 8:35 PM

In all fairness BCR, they got blindsided by the recession killing international trade.

On a lighter note, the picture above would lead one to believe that Prince Harry is on the YXS board.

Posted by: Palopu on May 13 2009 9:33 PM

Wolfie. The recession slowed down trade it didnt kill it. If there was significant money to be made by landing in Pr George and refueling etc, then I suggest that Airlines would take advantage of it.

My guess is, is that there is no significant savings that would warrant a major change in how they do business.

Steig Hoeg didnt leave for no reason. It would be interesting to know what the real story is behind his leaving. Acutally it would be interesting to know the real story behind Don Cozzetto leaving UNBC also. Each one got approx $450,000.00 in pay outs. Taxpayer money of course.

We get huge press coverage when they hire these dudes,but when they are fired, we are told that it is all confidential, and we are not privy to that information.

Posted by: Wolfie on May 13 2009 9:49 PM

I would argue that a recession would not be the best time to experiment with a "major change in how they do business". These companies would be concentrating entirely on how to keep as much business as they can, and would not want to risk alienating customers by changing things up in such volatile times. If and when growth resumes, then companies may think more seriously about coming to PG, when it is less of a gamble.

I agree with you entirely about the disclosure on the pay-outs, especially as they were paid with taxpayer funds. It should be mandatory, as far as I'm concerned.

Posted by: He spoke on May 14 2009 8:13 AM

Yep, I would have to say the payoff would have been between $350,000 to $450,000. Yep, but you gotta admit, Stieg definitely got things done out there. If we had a weak administrator, than we would probably have the same old terminal and no expansion of the runway. Sure we spent a lot of money. But it was not just the residence of PG that paid for it all.

I sure hope that the next manager has as much charisma as old Stieg had.

Posted by: BCRacer on May 14 2009 9:15 AM

Maybe if we pay them to land and give them the fuel for free they """MIGHT""" come....
recessio or no
recession we got had!!!!!

Posted by: Palopu on May 14 2009 8:06 PM

You got that right BCRacer.

Notice that the article talks about the **Bottom Line** What sort of accounting nomenclature would use the term **Bottom Line**

In actual fact the Airport Authority had an operating deficit of $185,373.00 in 2007.

They had cash on hand of $91,553.00.

The figure of $1,674,385.00 is Revenue over expenses, and this money in its entirety came from Airport Improvement Fees, and must be spent on improvements to the Airport only. These funds cannot be used for General Operating Funds.

I do not know what their deficit, Revenue over Expenses, Cash on Hand, or AIF revenues are for 2008 because they werent mentioned in the article, and the 2008 Annual Report has not yet been posted on their website. Hopefully we will get it soon.