News - Stephenville International Airport

Stephenville International Airport has hit a spot of turbulence. Its board of directors recently received word that Provincial Airlines - the airport's only domestic passenger service - will be cutting some flights due to mechanical issues.

But board chairman Shawn Tilley is taking it in stride. He said while fewer flights mean less revenue from landing and airport improvement fees, it's just another challenge for the airport to overcome.

The truth is, he said, that while the airport does have a revenue base - in domestic, international and corporate flights, fuel sales, rentals and charters - it isn't making enough money to keep up basic operating costs and to maintain its infrastructure, a problem that exists in more places than Stephenville.

"Our airport is really oversized," Tilley said. "It's not unique to us, there's a lot of other airports in the country like that. What happens is it's just a function of your costs being out of control. (The infrastructure) is just too big."

The board has also been unsuccessful in trying to get project grant money from the federal and provincial governments and in securing new business for the facility.

Stephenville International Airport's infrastructure was discussed in a 2002 viability study prepared by consulting company Sypher-Mueller which looked at 26 airports across the country.

The study found that many small airports have infrastructure that is expensive for them to maintain, and that many were still in the red after being cut loose by Transport Canada in the 1990s.

Monette Connaughton, executive director of the Atlantic Canada Airports Association, said Stephenville's struggles are similar to those of other small airports across the region.

Her group lobbies the federal government on behalf of most Atlantic Canadian airports, and she said funding assistance is necessary for many of them to stay viable.

As an example, she said one airport needs to repave a 7,000-foot runway, which would cost about $10.5 million.

"It would take them 10 to 12 to 15 years (to pay it off), and in some airports' cases, depending on the passenger traffic, never. They couldn't generate that kind of revenue in order to keep up their infrastructure requirements."

The lack of federal government funding is a sore spot for many airports struggling to stay open across the country.

This year, 22 airport-related infrastructure projects applied for federal funding in the Atlantic region and were denied, Connaughton said, yet roads, harbours, rail and other forms of transportation infrastructure were funded.

She acknowledged that funding announced recently for a runway extension at Deer Lake airport is a success story for airports across Canada.

"That was a step in the right direction and we hope there's going to be more to come," Connaughton said.

Meanwhile, Tilley said the airport board has almost completed a business plan, funded by the Town of Stephenville, to present to the provincial government for potential funding.

He said the board is doing whatever it can to make the airport work and to keep the doors open - a task it has undertaken since Stephenville Airport Corp. was formed in 1996.

"There's no point in blaming Transport Canada (for divesting the airport). They made a decision," he said. "Our response to that was basically to take the airport over as a community group and we had to run it profitably, and we've never been able to do that."

Recently the airport applied for, but failed to receive, funding from the Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP) to update its lighting system on the hills surrounding the town.

"Those lights were transferred to the airport, as well, by Transport Canada. Not a good thing," Tilley said.

Each light, which runs on solar panels, costs approximately $50,000 to replace and five or six will soon need replacement, he said.

"That could easily be a $200,000 bill for the airport. ... It's a secondary safety system, but secondary or primary doesn't matter. It's still a safety system and it has to be operational. So if they fail, we could lose our certification based on that."

The ACAP program was set up to help with the safety infrastructure needs of small airports in the country. Stephenville Airport has received money from the fund in the past, for projects ranging from a salt storage shed to runway repaving.

Connaughton said there are 200 airports across Canada that are eligible for ACAP funding, which has an annual budget of $38 million.

"For a lot of these airports, that is their only source of capital funding and safety-related funding and infrastructure-related funding. It's just drastically underfunded," she said.

Tilley said the board is still seeking funding and exploring other avenues to ensure the airport's survival.