Airport Finishes Year With Profit

Tuesday, May 09, 2006 04:00 AM

Airport Operations Manager Stieg Hoeg on the left, talks with member of the public about road conditions leading to YXS

This has been a very good year for the Prince George Airport Authority.

The Authority held its annual general meeting this afternoon and revealed it has finished 2005 with an operations surplus of just over $41 thousand dollars. That is a significant achievement as the Authority climbed back from a $707 thousand dollar operations recorded in 2004.

Operations Manager Stieg Hoeg says the Airport Authority owes a lot of thanks to the staff who did everything they could do to improve the bottom line. There were significant savings in wages and benefits as jobs lost through attrition were not filled and there were other positives. Revenue from an increased traffic flow (about 10% more travelers), the Airport Improvement Fund, landing fees, parking fees, concessions, all showed increases all helping to put the Airport in the black. “The Prince George Airport is no longer a stretch of pavement where people just land or take off” Hoeg told the members of the public, “It is now a catalyst, a viable tool for the economic development of the region.”

Board Chair Jim Blake told the group how they have had some positive talks with provincial and federal reps about the need to expand a runway. The current length is 7,400 feet they would like to have it extended to 11,400. That would make it long enough to handle the planes traveling back and forth between North America and Asia. “All we need to do is capture 2% of the refueling market to make it a viable project” says Chair Jim Blake. “I can’t make any big announcements yet, but we are optimistic.”

He also noted there are expansion plans, first to expand the parking lot to the east. That should start this year. Eventually, he says they would like to expand the older terminal building so it matches up with the footprint of the new part of the airport.

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Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 04:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: diplomat on May 9 2006 9:38 AM

As far as the much needed runway extension project goes: We have elected three provincial Liberal MLAs and two federal Conservative MPs who are now committed to work hard at representing us and our interests in Ottawa and in Victoria.

Having the political inside track, so to speak, it would be only reasonable to expect the acknowledged fiscal imbalances and lack of infra-structure to be swiftly taken care of by coming through with all the funds required for the runway extension.

Prince George needs this economic boost and investment for the future, especially when one considers a future when the role of the forest industry will be somewhat diminished.

Posted by: owl on May 9 2006 2:29 PM

We will need a much longer runway for the 21st century version of the Spruce Goose to take off so that we can show the world about value added forest products.

http://www.sprucegoose.org/aircraft_artifacts/exhibits.html

;-)

Posted by: diplomat on May 9 2006 5:01 PM

Great humour, owl! Howard Hughes would be ever so proud!

Still, we are fully represented in Ottawa - so what are Hill and Harris doing about the P.G. Airport runway issue???

The economic spin-off from the freight business refuelling stops alone would be enormous, assuring dozens more local jobs and a steady increase in fuel sales for the local refinery.

Then there is the prospect of the inland container port and the possible air freight links to that.

Let's get some of those infrastructure funds now.

Posted by: Palopu on May 9 2006 9:16 PM

So we continue to dream. One would think that before you build the runway you would ensure that you are going to get some business.
I see those planes fly over us every day heading for Asia, I doubt if you can get them to stop here.

As a matter of interest the local refinery does not make Jet Fuel so I suggest that the fuel would continue to be brought in from Ft Sask, or Edmonton, or whereever it comes from. The Jet Fuel for the Airport at Anchorage Alaska is brought in by Ship.

As for the Inland Container port, if it ever materilizes, it will only load out products that we presenlty load out in Vancouver, that is if we can make it more competitive to load containers here and send them to Prince Rupert, rather that suffing them in Vancouver. As for the Containers coming in from Asia the Manager of the Port of Prince Rupert in on record as stating that 98% of these containers will be loaded directly on rail cars and shipped to Toronto,Chicago,Memphis, etc. No plans at this time to stop these containers at Prince George.

The Prince George Airport has served this City well over the years, and any suggestion by Mr Hoeg that it is a better Airport now than it was 10 or 15 years ago is not true. All you really have is a new building with a dramatically underused Customs Area.

The only reason that this Airport made a small profit this year is because they raised the Airport Improvement Fee from $5.00 to $10.00 which doubled their income. They should give the people who use this Airport Credit for the Profit because it came out of their pockets.

These Airport Societys are a devious development by the Federal Government and are in fact nothing more that Double Taxation. The Federal Government makes $50 Million dollars a year more now that the Vancr Airport Authority runs the Airport that it did when the Federal Government ran it. That $50 Million is in addition to the Huge Profits that the Vancr Authority makes. Most of this money comes from the Airport Improvement Fees, which is really a tax on air travellers. You do not have to be to brilliant to make money under those conditions.
Prior to setting up the Airport Societys the Federal Government ran the Airports and if they didnt make money it came out of Tax Dollars. I suggest you are still paying the tax but you no longer get the benefits from the Feds.

The reason the Pr Geo Airport cannot make a go of it is because they do not have huge numbers of people using the Airlines and therefore are limited in the amount of money they make. If air travel declines, this Airport will lose money. Its just that simple.

Posted by: diplomat on May 10 2006 8:30 AM

I appreciate your in-depth evaluation of the present realities facing the P.G. Airport. If we set our goals/dreams too low we will certainly rise up only to those lowered expectations.

Other cities are aggressively going after every dollar that can be squeezed out of the federal and provincial sponges and I suggest Prince George simply do the same.