"How could the airport have gotten it so wrong?"

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

How could the airport have gotten it so wrong?
By ROGER TAYLOR
Canada - The Halifax Herald Limited


AS IF Halifax International Airport officials didn't know they had a public
relations crisis on their hands, reality really must have come home to roost
Monday when their morning newspapers arrived. 

On the front page was a photo of arguably the most famous junior hockey star
in the world, Sidney Crosby, sitting on his duffel bag outside the Halifax
airport waiting for a bus to take him to Moncton's airport. 

Although one of Nova Scotia's most famous sons had a good-natured smile on
his face, as he usually does, the photograph drove home the point that
anyone flying should try to avoid Halifax for the next little while. 

The airport is an increasingly important hub of the Nova Scotia economy, so
this fiasco is having a detrimental effect on passengers, air carriers,
air-freight companies and their Halifax customers. 

Brian Rose of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce says his organization hasn't
tried to figure out what the flight delays and diversions to other airports
are costing the local economy. After all, he says, once this immediate
problem is cleared up, there may be other factors that mitigate the
financial toll on businesses. 

In case you didn't know, the instrument landing system at the airport has
been turned off while contractors work around the clock to complete a
much-needed renovation of the runway surfaces and upgrading of equipment,
including a modern lighting system. Airport officials chose this time of
year to do the work, they say, because warmer temperatures are needed for
the new asphalt to be laid properly. Summer is also supposed to be the best
season for moderate weather in Nova Scotia, so in theory, low clouds and fog
should have little effect on the arrival and departure of aircraft. It just
so happens that summer came late this year. 

By coincidence, Toronto's Pearson International Airport is also undergoing a
major renovation. Pearson is Canada's largest airport, so the work on a
major runway there started last summer, is continuing this summer and will
be completed next summer. 

In order to keep air traffic moving with as few interruptions as possible,
Pearson officials approached Nav Canada about putting up a temporary
instrument landing system, so the runway could continue to be used, albeit
shortened, while one end was being upgraded. 

Nav Canada is the private corporation that co-ordinates the movement of
aircraft in Canadian domestic airspace and international airspace assigned
to Canadian control. 

Louis Garneau, spokesman for Nav Canada, says Toronto made a request for a
temporary instrument landing service well before work began. By chance, Nav
Canada was able to take instrument landing equipment from a smaller airport
near Ottawa and move it to Pearson temporarily, he says. 

But that only gives pilots use of a so-called localizer, which provides
left-to-right guidance. 

Halifax has a localizer operating, he says, but it does not have equipment
that indicates the "glide path," which provides guidance for altitude. The
localizer only allows aircraft to land if the cloud ceiling is 90 metres and
there is visibility of 1.5 kilometres. 

Garneau believes enough work will be completed on the Halifax airport runway
by the end of this week that the system could be upgraded, allowing for a
ceiling of 60 metres and visibility just under a kilometre. 

The problem Halifax has been facing is the weather, he says, and the fact
it's poor flying weather is just bad luck. 

I'm sure the passengers who had to take a bus to Moncton to catch their
plane were complaining about luck too. Anyone want to bet, once the runway
work is completed to allow for the landing system upgrade, we'll get a
number of perfect summer days in a row?


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