News - Stephenville International Airport

Stephenville International Airport has been through a lot of changes in 2009, but the year ahead could prove to be the most challenging yet for operators.

Shawn Tilley, Stephenville Airport Corporation chair, reflected upon the last year recently in a sit-down interview with the Georgian.

One of the major issues the facility faces as the year comes to a close is a big drop in fuel sales from the previous year.

"A November/November comparison from 2008 and we're down by 40 per cent," he said.

"We haven't had much traffic at all this fall ... it's been an ongoing issue. And obviously our brand is not that good in the airline world so that's an ongoing issue because of our struggles."

Problems with landing beacons and the issuance of landing warnings to pilots, Mr. Tilley said, have also played a role in the airport having less traffic.

While there was a lot of excitement surrounding a visit from a representative of KAZ Aviation recently, no deal has been signed yet that would see the American fixed-base operations company begin to operate from and run the airport.

"They're still deciding whether there's a commonality between the airport, town and KAZ," said Mr. Tilley. "In any event, it could take four to six months before we see them here as an operator."

The big news surrounding the airport as of late has been the preparation of a business plan and audit, paid for by the Town of Stephenville.

Mr. Tilley said in pre-audit meetings with a representative of Grant Thornton, the company contracted to do the plan and accompanying audit, he learned of internal control procedures that need to be fixed.

"Some of these issues went back to 2005 in the receivership timeframe that hadn't been ... I don't want to say addressed properly but weren't in a way that made it objective decision making."

He said these issues point to things that need to be addressed in future financial reporting and decision making.

"How the information is presented and captured ... there may be training issues, there may be staffing issues in terms of either hiring new people or training existing staff so this is going to have to be a resource component to that."

A provision of the town of Stephenville paying for the business plan is the town may do the future appointing of persons to the airport board.

Mr. Tilley said any new board must understand that the airport has to be operated as a business and to do so needs proper information in order to make decisions, something he said the current board has often been without.

"This airport corporation has got to start acting more professional and more like a quote unquote 'real business,' he said.

On Dec. 24 the airport used the first of its payroll subsidies guaranteed by the town of Stephenville.

"There's still some money that was allocated back in September that will cover the payroll or a portion thereof for some time," he said. "I'd like to make it very clear we are super appreciative of the town for the money for payroll - but there's got to be a more permanent solution looking forward."

Some version of the airport's new business plan was set to be complete by the holidays. Once that's in hand, Mr. Tilley said the next objective is to see out the funding so many people feel the facility is entitled to.

"The quote I get is that Deer Lake got their money so we should get ours. No one is going to question that in terms of a goal, but is it real?" He said.

Mr. Tilley said once the plan is complete, the next step is to seek out programs the airport can apply to for funding, providing there are any the facility qualifies for.

"It's a question we don't know the answer to," he said. "So to those who think there is a pile of money there, they might be right, they might be wrong. It's obviously something that's going to have to be clarified very early in the new year."

Prior to becoming the airport board chair, Mr. Tilley was head of the government task force set up to search for economic opportunities for the town after the closure of the Abitibi Bowater paper mill.

Comparing the two jobs, Mr. Tilley said the amount of rhetoric he hears in relation to the airport is 100 per cent above and beyond what he experienced in terms of the mill closure.

"There are people that stop you on the street, there are comments, the Facebook comments, the radio show commentaries, the newspaper articles, the newspaper commentaries. Unbelievable."