In order to become a better regional airport it needs to talk with the two major airlines about adding destinations. Only back and forth to Vancouver is limiting - perhaps having direct flights to Calgary and/or Edmonton would be a good idea. Especially with WestJet where flights direct to Calgary could feed into the multitude of destinations served from their headquarters airport. One or two flights a day would probably be a good start. The North needs to look beyond Vancouver as a source of transportation for the economy.

As with bus routes, airlines adjust their flights based on the origin and destination of those who fly. Destinations depend on where family is, business is, and vacation destinations are. Simply put, Vancouver is still the nearest hub for the majority of that. There used to be connections to Edmonton as well as Calgary and Victoria. In the mid 70's to mid 80's one did not have to fly to Vancouver to fly to Ft. St. John, Ft. Nelson, Watson Lake and Whitehorse. The flight was a 737 "milk-run" from Vancouver to Whitehorse.

None of the many flights put on by the major airlines with jet planes were eonmical, or at least did not continue to be economical. Not enough people going. Simple.

Hey, remember Jetsgo?

BTW, does anyone know whatever happened to the flight from Ft. McMurray to PG to Mexico? Seems to have quietly died?!

This is how it went;

The flight from Ff McMurray to Pr George and then to Mexico ran into trouble after the first few flights because they were not getting any passengers out of Ft. McMurray. They then ran a flight from Victoria, to Prince George to Mexico, and the Mexico to Prince George (Clear Customs) and then back to Victoria. This allowed them to fill the flights to something like 80/90%.

At the end of the season (Feb?) Transat implied that they would be back this year, however I have not seen any advertising for a flight from Prince George to Mexico. There are a lot of Flights from Victoria to Puerto Vallarta, and also from Vancouver on Transats web site, however nothing from Prince George.

The playing of Mexican music, wearing sombreo's, dancing and waving that took place last year, along with the hype that we now ha

CONTINUE. now have an International Airport seems to have died down. The only thing in the International Airport (New Section) at this point in time is empty customs offices, and kiosks, and a Rent a Car.

If they are going to have flights this year then they will have to get on it very quickly.

If one keeps in mind that before the Government sold BC Rail it was owned by the Taxpayers of British Columbia, and that before the Federal Government turned the running of the Prince George Airport over to the Airport Authority,it was owned by the Taxpayers, then you might, I say might be able to follow this.

BC Government sells BC Rail, and gives $135 Million Dollars from the sale to the Northern Initiatives Trust (This trust was set up by the BC Government) The Northern Init Trust then loans 11 Million of the $135 Million to the Pr George Airport Authority (Interest rate tied to inflation) The Airport Authority was set up by the Federal Government. The 11 Million is to go to Airport improvements and they hope to get an additional 11 Million from the BC Govt and 11 Million from the Fed Govt.

The Airport Authy will pay back the loan to the Northern Int Trust through revenue generated by the Airport Improvement Fees, which generate approx $1.5 Million per year. All paid for by the travelling (Flying) public.

It seems to me that all we have here is the sale of a Provincial asset, taking the money and running it through a few so-called societys and then using it to improve an airport that is in fact owned by the Federal Government who has leased the buildings and Runway etc; to the Airport Authority for 60 Years. Lease paymnts start in 2011.

This type of kiting money through different organizations seems a lot like what Enron, and some of those other Companies were doing.

If you were to do this at a carnival, it would be called a **shell game** , however when we do it here in good old British Columbia we call it Investment in our future.

The common sense thing that should have been done, would be for the Federal Government to continue to run the Airport and to do all the improvements that were necessary out of normal tax dollars. However it is much better to give Societys taxing Authority for these improvements, so that the Feds can get paid rent for the facilities, and continue to collect the taxes that they initially used to run the Airport.

Get it?? I dont.

Do you remember the provincial DPW???? ... that became BCBC ..... was actually one of the top "companies" in Canada.

Do you remember the Department of Highways? ... now divied up into YRB and the like ....

It's called privatization ....

As I keep saying, no matter how you slice it, the user pays for it, since the taxpayers by another name are users .... since the users by another name are the clients ... since the clients by another name are the purchasers ..... and so on.

How one keeps account of the money is of no interest to me as long as someone does not get a double salary in the process. I just do not get why people make so much fuss about such things. I find that it is typically the cheapskates who make the fuss.

Owl. Once again you miss the point. How do you get privatization out of an Airport Authority that was set up by the Federal Government, allowed to use the Government facilities for 7 years more or less without paying any leasing charges. Giving them Authority to assess a Airport Improvement Fee from Airline Passengers to generate revenue, and in the final 50 years of the lease pay the Federal Government millions of dollars.

The Airport Authority is not allowed to make a profit, as the funds from AIF's must go back into Airport improvements. Those who work for the Airport Authority are paid by the funds generated through, renting facilities, landing and take off fees, etc,.

There is absolutely nothing in this whole process that could be construed as Privatization. If I rent you a house, just because you pay the rent, does not mean you own the house. The Federal Government still owns the Airport and all the facilities, they are just renting it to a Society so that they can generate more revenue.

Take some time to read the mandate of the different Airport Authoritys in Canada. You will see that it is no different than, ICBC, Ferry Corp, WCB, BC Hydro, etc; They all purport to be private to some degree, but in fact they are all owned by the Government, are allowed to assess taxes (BC Transit) and the Government can download its responsibilitys to these Authoritys, while continuing to rake in the money. Same thing applies to BC Lottery Corp.

None of these outfits are Private.

YRB is different as it is an actual Company that gets a Government Contract and performs certain functions. If they do not perform then the contract can be given to some other private company.

This has nothing to do with what I am talking about.

Wouldnt you think that if the Federal Government, which owned the Airport and taxed Canadians to run it, and then leased (rented) it to a Authority to run, who was allowed to collect money from airline passengers to pay the rent, and who in the case of the Vancouver Airport makes more money from the rent that it did when it ran the Airport itself, who continues to collect the taxes to run the Airport. (I didnt see any drop in my taxes). Wouldnt you think that this is a prime example of a **double salary**.

The direct flights from Prince George to Mexico are indeed a go this year. Those flights from PG are for the most part filling up , some I think are nearlly sold out. While we haven't to this date got any new airlines to look at the city . we still have one international flight to Mexico direct by Transat Holidays and others will be watching to see just what kind of traffic we can put up.

Interesting. I havent seen any advertising for these flights, nor could I find them on Transat Holidays Web Site. In any event I wonder if it will be the same as last year. That is, Victoria, to Prince George, to Mexico, and Mexico, to Prince George (Clear Customs) and then on to Victoria.

Ideally you would want a full plane out of Prince George. I am sure that those people flying out of Victoria do not appreciate the extra 2 hours flying time on these flights.

Maybe its time to break out the Sombreo's.

Palopu, Uniglobe has been advertising these flights for some time. We understand the flights will be even better this year, Prince George to Vallarta, no stops, then Vallarta to P.G. no connections, no side trips to pick up any other passengers....
elaine macdonald, publisher

Thanks Elaine. I missed the advertising.