The City of Prince Albert has put off raising fees at the Prince Albert Airport after COVID-19 delayed recent Airport Advisory Council (AAC) Meetings.
Airport Manager Corey Nygaard said most of those fees come from leases which are up for renewal at the end of the year. The ACC has already planned to review airport fees as part of the new Strategic Master Plan, but that plan won’t be ready until February 2021.
“We are recommending we wait for the Strategic Master Plan process to be complete before we change the fees,” Nygaard told city council during an executive committee meeting on July 13. “But due to the timing of some leases—coming due before that plan is (completed) in February 2021—we recommend, like we did in a previous report last year, that the leases are renewed for a year at current rates, and that they would be adjusted when we finally knew our new rates.”
A total of 17,615 passengers used the Prince Albert Airport in 2019, while aircraft landed or took off a total of 12,272 times. Those two areas accounted for $318,211 and $209,164 in airport revenues, respectively. Both were higher than budgeted revenue projections. Hanger and terminal revenue was also higher than expected in 2019, with $264,885 generated.
Despite those positives, the Prince Albert Airport has seen revenue fall every year since 2015. That decrease is largely due to downturns in the mining sector, and the merger of local air carriers, both of which reduced the number of scheduled flights.
Expenses, meanwhile, remain fixed, since the airport needs to be fully staffed even just for one flight.
“Recent reduced traffic provides no savings,” reads a report included in the meeting agenda package. “The range of costs from utilities to staffing have fixed or non-avoidable elements for all regional airports.”
The City of Prince Albert already provides nearly $300,000 for the airport from the General Reserve. The only other ways to offset revenue losses is to cut airport operation hours or increase fees.
The airport currently charges a landing fee of $4/1,000 kg. That’s lower than other regional certified airports in Brandon, Man and Lloydminster, but on par with La Ronge.
The PA airport also charges $3 per square meter of hanger space. The cost is $1.55 per square meter in Lloydminster and $1.40 in La Ronge. Figures for the Brandon airport were unavailable.