All it takes is one phone call to the gas people at the airport to raise the price of aviation fuel. Just like here in town. Clean the windshield, check the tires, eat lunch and leave PG. And wait til they return. A boon for our economy.

Each large body aircraft that lands creates around 30 jobs. It's about time. To all the people who knowingly bought houses near the airport. Too bad you knew what you were doing when you bought out there.

Congratulations P.G. I still think this was good planning. We're proud of it.

Each jet that lands creates 30 jobs??? mmm Good meds there szd!

Awesome news for Prince George !!

Well done, all you folks that toiled to make this become a reality.

I hope the weather looks a little better tomorrow when it arrives, but I'll bet Alaska has some pretty crappy days (weather-wise) too !

This is only the beginning folks -- once the other carriers discover their "competition" is using YXS, you can bet your gum boots they're gonna check out why they're here, and if they see an advantage, they'll be here too. That's the nature of doing business in any aspect these days !

Tomorrow will go down in history as a turning point for Prince George, and I, for one, am a very happy PG'er today !!

With fuel prices squeezing the bottom line for airlines all over the world, I suspect we could see the day when those "cargo" planes, can pick up a few passengers also, and you'll see the day when we can fly non-stop direct from PG to Asia, sort of like the Greyhound buses with passengers on board, and dragging trailers with cargo behind, which helps "pay the bills".

Made my day, this one !!

palomino

One sparrow doesnt make it spring.

We will have to wait and see if this is a PR event, or the start of something bigger. They tried to get a 747 to land when they officially opened the Airport Runway earlier this year, but were unable to do so.

There is not a lot of difference in air miles between Seoul to Anchorage to Miami, or Seoul to Prince George to Miami so it will be interesting to hear why they chose Prince George. Fuel costs and landing and take off fees would be about the same.

Southern Air Inc. is a Heavy LIft Charter carrier who leases planes to other carriers and in this case it appears that they have leased this one to China Southern Air.

I presume this is a Cargo jet with Cargo for Miami, and Caracus, although the story doesnt say.

that is the statistic that is commonly used to figure out the benefit of such aircraft movement. It of course would include fuel trucks, landing personnel, handlers ettc.

it is a start. so lets not spend all of our time bashing them.

As I said. this could be the start of something, or it could be part of a PR excercise, to make us feel better about the expenditure of $36 Million dollars.

I expect very few flight between now and springtime, and probably very few after that, however I could be wrong.

Weve spent the money, so we have no choice but to hope for the best.

What are your expectations based on Palopu? The weather??? Cynism????

What are your expectations based on Palopu? The weather??? Cynism????

Congratulations are due.I'm sure there was tremendous work behind the scene to reach this point.

PR exercise or not, simple logic dictates that a refuelling industry simply cannot exist until you have planes stopping to refuel. In these regards, we at least appear to starting down the path of OPPORTUNITY, a path that many people around here said would never happen I might add.

For that reason, I think this can be chalked up as a great news story. It's still going to be up to the airport to keep moving their plan ahead, but I think the first refueling stop should be noteworthy just because it needs to occur at some point if anything else is to transpire.

What are your expectations based on Palopu? The weather??? Cynism????

If I was a cynic, then I would question why we facilitate a weapons transport to Mr Chevaz from China for the Chevaz planned war with our free trade ally Columbia... but even though that is likely the cargo, at least in part... we can leave that for others to worry about at this time.

As for the first 747 coming in for a landing at PG Airport. That is fantastic news IMO and I agree that it is a turning point in PG's long term economy. This will be a great historic day for PG and glad to see this project is getting some traction. I see good things in the future with PG Airport, but still think its a long term development that will likely take more than a decade to reach maturity.

Time Will Tell

weapons are way too heavy to transport economically by plane. Boat is the obvious way.

A 747 landed here in 2000 to take chinese boat people back to China. The runway then was too short for a take off with enough fuel for the trip, the aircraft dropped into Whitehorse for additional fuel.

Start of a bright future for our airport and the city. Congratulations!!!!

If 12% of PG's 75,000 people are out of work and each landed jet creates 30 jobs, you're telling me that 300 touch-downs would completely solve our unemployment problems?

Where can I sign up?

Distance from airport to ariport.

Seoul to Anchorage to Miami
6,080 + 6,440 = 12,520

Seoul to PG to Miami
7,890 + 4,660 = 12,550

The long leg from Seoul means additional fuel. However, the prevailing winds might be more favourable or there is another reason.

BTW, Westjet cancelled a 7am Monday flight due to snow.

Gus. Where do you get the mileage to Prince George from??? The mileage calculator I use does not list Prince George.???

szd. My expectations are based on a number of things .

(1) It is highly unlikely that any Major Cargo Carriers will change the way they do business. Certainly not in the short term, and probably not at all, because it would be cost prohibitive to relocate their operations, and the savings would not warrant such a move. Using Gus's example above you can see that in that instance it is further to fly Seoul to Pr George to Miami, than from Seoul to Anchorange to Miami. So where is the savings?.

(2) When flying from Southeast Asia to Prince George the Jet Stream is pushing the planes, and therefore there can be some savings in fuel, however going from Prince George to Southeast Asia the opposite is true, and therefore we are somewhat competitive in one direction only.
It was not the intent for the Prince George Airport to compete on traffic from Prince George West, and therefore we have already restricted our potential traffic by over 50%.

(3) Not being able to fly East and West restricts us to East Bound flights only, and therefore would not be able to effect crew changes etc; There are hundreds of pilots stationed in Anchorage to fly planes in and out of that terminal. In addition they have all the facilities to do maintenance, transfer cargo etc;

(4) The Prince George Airports forcast in the Citizen Oct 6, 2007 stated that they expected 32 international flights per year carrying approx 14000 passengers for the years 2009,2010,2011, and 312 Cargo flights per year for the same period. Flights were to continue to rise thereafter. What we have for the year 2009 is (1) One flight, and therefore we can assume that there is something wrong with their forecasting. In addition they have made no mention of a second flight, so we can assume that this is a one shot deal at this time.

(5) Even if the Airports forcasts came to fruition, that number of flights per year for the first 3 years would only generate $516,000.00 per year in landing and take off fees. The Airport gets no revenue from the sale of fuel. That money goes to the oil companies. Considering that the operating deficit for the year 2008 at the Aiport was $1,115,000.00 we can readly see that the possibililty of making money (or breaking even) in the short term is highly unlikely.

(6) Add to the above the recession (which everyone uses as an excuse for a plan gone bad) and you have some serious finiancial problems looming for the Airport in the next few years. Can they get enough business fast enough to save them from going broke?? ( I doubt it) I see a major bail out coming from the Federal Government.

(7) Additional jobs at the Airport for a refueling operation that for the first three years would be approx one plane per day would be minimal. If you could ever get to the numbers of cargo jets that fly in and out of Anchorage (700 per week) then you would be looking at some big dollars.

So we can say that the Airports own forcast indicates approx one plane per day for the next three years, and the fact that only one plane landed so far for 2009, gives one a pretty good indication that there will be very few flights until this spring, and maybe not many even then.

Have a nice day.

Its about time I don't know any other bussiness that would spend this kind of money with out a contract allready in place. this build it and they will come stragey is crazy good thing the tax payer is paying because no one else could afford it.

I just heard from a source at the airport that it will be 16 hours late!

A Korean official got his palms greased with cash to change the landing site. Its how they do business over there.

I am surprized that no one has commented on the possible pollution these carriers will create....Ive read the ones about the downtown and the pulp mills, why not the airport and the large cargo carriers?

747's don't smell like rotten eggs!

They put out more gunk than several diesal locomotives at once.