News - Stephenville International Airport

It will be at least another two weeks before the much talked about business plan for Stephenville International Airport will be complete.

Speaking with the Georgian after a meeting of the airport's board of directors last week, chair Shawn Tilley said the board was given an update on the plan from airport manager Larry Smith and Stephenville Mayor Tom O'Brien.

Mr. Tilley said he would have liked to see the plan identify which sectors of the business were profitable and which were not. He said he questioned the auditor about this at a previous meeting and was told it may not happen.

"That's pretty close to impossible for our existing financial statements," he said. "The problem with that is it makes any evaluation of the business plan very difficult because you don't know which sectors are profitable and which are not."

The need to perform an audit on all of the airport's financial statements is what caused the holdup of the business plan. Having the audit completed will be essential, said Mr. Tilley, in staying eligible for certain funding programs.

"The airport intends to apply to ACAP for financing," he said, but will ineligible without a completed audit. That means we have to get that before we can get approval."

Mayor O'Brien said the town, which is paying the nearly $30,000 fee for the airport's business plan and audit, hopes to have the completed financial statements in their hands by this week and the business plan shortly thereafter.

Mr. Tilley said the board decided at last week's meeting to raise the airport's improvement fee to $30 from $20 dollars. He said the decision was made based on last year's decrease in traffic and will come into effect sometime in the new year.

He said the board also discussed the possibility of laying off some of the airport's 20 staff members, but a final decision was not made.

"The decision will be on the correct number of employees for the size of the operation and volume of traffic that we're getting," he said of any future layoffs.

Mr. Tilley also said the batteries for the beacon approach lights were replaced by EFCO last week and should be back in working order soon.

Once they are, an advisory sent out to pilots by Transport Canada advising them of limited visability at Stephenville, will be revoked.