City Centre Airport Tug of War Turns Ugly - Edmonton

Airport Tug of War Turns Ugly
Smaller airlines angry over threat to ban 10-seat flights at City Centre

The Edmonton Journal, Canada

Thursday, November 13, 2003

EDMONTON - A chorus of threats and insults is growing louder over the
future of scheduled flights at City Centre Airport.

The battle pits the small airlines and the politicians of the northern
Alberta communities the companies serve against the Edmonton Regional
Airports Authority.

And it looks like city council will have to step in to referee.

On Tuesday, Scott Clements, the head of the airports authority, which runs
both the City Centre and International airports, suggested the small
airport might even ban 10-seat scheduled flights as early as next year.
Planes with more passengers than that must already use the International.

"From our perception and many of the other carriers, Clements has been on
a path to make the airport so unviable that he can get it shut down," said
Brent Gateman, president of Integra Air, which flies 9,000 passengers each
year into the downtown airport from Lethbridge.

"Sitting on this side of the fence, we see (Clements) blowing hordes of
money into this Taj Mahal that is the International. We think it's the
biggest joke there is."

Gateman said 91 per cent of his company's revenue comes from the
Lethbridge-Edmonton run. If Integra is forced to compete at the
International Airport with Air Canada -- which also flies to Lethbridge --
the viability of his business will be in question, Gateman said.

Other operators were just as harsh.

"There is going to be a political furor like you have not seen in a long
time in this province," Peace Air president Albert Cooper said. Peace Air
flies about 80 people daily direct from Edmonton to Calgary, High Level,
Peace River and Grande Prairie.

"Northern Alberta uses that airport regularly, daily."

Closing the airport to scheduled traffic, he said, "will hurt the city of
Edmonton as a business community and certainly in its claim to be the
Gateway to the North."

Airports authority spokeswoman Traci Bednard said the organization on Nov.
19 will provide exhaustive detail of its plans for both airports.

Alberta Economic Development Minister Mark Norris said current scheduled
flights should not be cut back.

"I don't think it would become economically viable after that," he said of
the airport.

Mayor Bill Smith said that if the airports authority wants to drop all
scheduled service from the City Centre Airport, it has the right to do so
under its lease with the city.

"I suspect that council would get involved in lobbying them to not do
that," he said.

Other council members said the city can do far more than just lobby. Coun.
Allan Bolstad said it is time for council to have a renewed debate about
the city-owned airport's role.

"That lease is at the pleasure of both sides and if we don't like it, we
don't have to continue in that track," Bolstad said. "We also appoint all
sorts of people to the airports authority so we have significant influence
that way as well."

Coun. Ed Gibbons said the city cannot afford to shut the airport down to
scheduled service, a move he said would infuriate northern Alberta
communities.

"We are the gateway and northern Alberta is very important to us," he said.

Coun. Michael Phair said maintaining scheduled service downtown will hurt
the International and residents who want a wider range of flights.

Politicians in the north of the province, particularly Peace River, have
adamantly opposed the ban on 19-passenger flights into the City Centre.

Cooper of Peace Air said he had been told by the airports authority that
he could continue to fly into the airport as long as he did not exceed 10
passengers. The hint at a change, he said, "is pretty shocking and pretty
outrageous."

Paul Phee, the president of QuikAir, which flies seven times a day from
the City Centre to Calgary, said he had been arranging $10 million in
financing for smaller planes to comply with the airport's 10-seat rule,
but now wonders what to do.

QuikAir had been flying 19-seat planes to the downtown airport in
violation of the rules earlier this year, but began complying with the
airport after deciding it would lose its legal battle with the airports
authority.

Phee said he would move to the International Airport if required.

Jeff Foster, a mechanic at the City Centre Airport, said his company,
Foster Aircraft, could survive without business from scheduled airlines
but might not hire as many contract workers if the ban comes in.

"If they do ever close this airport or get it to the point where I can't
make a living, I'll move to Victoria" rather than set up at the
International, he said.

He said scheduled flights account for about half the planes he services.

Scheduled planes are 17 per cent of the airport's traffic. It also handles
charter, cargo and air-ambulance flights.

Even so, banning scheduled services could eventually lead to the airport's
closure, said Terry Nickerson, a pilot for Corporate Express's service
from the airport to Calgary.

"It appears they're trying to eliminate as much of the revenue as they can
and then there's a good excuse to shut down the airport."


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