B.C. airports 'left holding the bag' as Air Canada fails to pay debts Damian Inwood The Province Sunday, April 13, 2003 B.C. airports are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by ailing Air Canada. And those debts may lead to "bare-bones" operations, says Alvin Maier, managing director of Fort St. John Airport and B.C. spokesman for the Regional and Community Airports Coalition of Canada. "It's every airport in Canada that Air Canada owed money to up to April 1, for landing fees or terminal fees," he said. "The airport community has been left holding the bag." Air Canada filed for bankruptcy protection April 3. Maier said that in Fort St. John that amounts to $110,000, covering a period from January to April 1, which is about 10 per cent of the airport's annual revenue. "The airport this size runs on a break-even budget, with a net income of about $10,000," he added. "A loss that big puts us in the red pretty quickly." He said the airport, which employs six staff, cannot make cuts but will have to look at "creative ways" of saving money. "We'll do the bare minimum," he said, adding that safety will not be compromised. Maier said smaller airports that have Air Canada service are hoping to get an operational subsidy from the federal government. These include Fort Nelson, Prince George, Terrace, Prince Rupert, Quesnel, Williams Lake, Smithers, Kamloops, Cranbrook, Castlegar, Nanaimo and Campbell River. Bigger airports, like Kelowna, Abbotsford and Vancouver international, are trying to get a reduction in their rents from Transport Canada. The amount owed to airports across Canada is about $80 million, said Maier. The amount owed in B.C. is still being calculated, he said. Nanaimo Airport general manager David Hunter said his airport is owed $49,000 for March. "We are at the low end of the scale," he said. "All of us that had Air Canada Jazz or Air Canada flying into us, all have an impact of some sort. In all, 70 per cent of my monthly revenue comes from Air Canada, so that's a nasty tweak, to say the least." Hunter said that once Air Canada actually files for bankruptcy, ongoing payments will be secure. But there may be cuts in flights when the airline is restructured, said Hunter, adding that fuel and food operations are also being hit. Nav Canada, which provides air-traffic-control services across Canada, estimates it is owed $44 million nationwide. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.carstt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************