Airport Q and A
Global News contacted a locally based airline consultant to get his take on the City Centre Airport debate. Clifford Moen's area of expertise is commercial passenger and cargo avitation.
Q: Can Edmonton support a general aviation airport as well as an international airport?
A: I would say that yes they can but the question becomes "Can the purely General Aviation make enough income to pay their own bills". Some place like Villeneuve likely can because they have low infrastructure costs but I doubt that the users of CCA will readily pay the type of taxes and fees that would make that airport a stand alone proposition. I doubt that the users of the Muni want to pay for all of the 'big airport' services that they receive at big airport prices. Things such as multiple runways, navigation aids, control tower, weather services.
The problem for users and customers for the competing passenger airport is that they are then expected to subsidize the Muni. This might also be acceptable except that the supporters of the Muni will come back every few years and again ask for more passenger traffic to help pay the bills. This issue has occurred in places like Denver and Chicago. In Denver when the new airport was built the airlines would only sign for the construction bonds on the condition that the old airport was demolished as soon as the new airport opened. In Chicago, the Mayor ordered bulldozers to come in the middle of the night and start tearing up the runways so that it would end the debate.
Q: Based on your experience as an airline consultant, what would be the ideal situation for Edmonton when it comes to dealing with general aviation and regular aviation activity?
A: The ideal situation is to completely close the Muni only because the issue keeps coming back around every few years. The current situation is fine for the airline world as almost all of the traffic is concentrated at YEG, what worries airlines is that at the whim of the political winds the situation could dramatically change and they would need to split operations again.
Q: When it comes to business opportunities and attracting new service, does keeping the City Centre Airport open help or hurt?
A: For question three the theme is the same. The Muni hinders airline investment in new routes and new flights because of the uncertainty. The Muni is a great airport for those people who live in Calgary or elsewhere in the region to access the downtown from their private aircraft and corporate jets. The same is not
true for Edmontonians unless it is the people who own their own corporate jets. The Muni does not help John and Jane and their two kids who want a non-stop flight to DisneyLand or lots of service to Toronto to visit their relatives. For most Edmontonians, they want lots of service from a big international airport. Edmonton still needs to grow air service. Tonight I will return home via Frankfurt and Toronto. It would have been nice to return home non-stop from at least Frankfurt (if not Cairo) and business investors see the same thing. Calgary is a better, easier place to access globally so why not live, work and invest there (and then take the corporate jet to the Muni when needed).
