It presented to St. Catharines it wants to increase its' budget to over $1-million next year, and bring back more carriers
The Niagara District Airport is looking to increase it's operating budget of over $960,000 this year, to over $1-million next year.
Airport CEO Dan Pilon told St. Catharines city council's budget meeting they're wanting to expand with more carriers.
He adds they did have one before COVID, but it takes time to rebuild. "It's a real challenge from a capital space for airlines to be able to manage what those costs look like, with the small numbers that you're moving. So, we continue to have them, a number of them did present to our planning and operations committee, and our finance groups, to identify what those challenges are. We haven't been able to find a model or a partner."
He adds the airport remains staffed and operational mainly for safety aspects.
He also says most regional airports deal with the same thing, coming back from COVID.
London had 600,000 passengers before COVID, now they're at 300,000. "Airlines are reticent to start new routes, and they're challenged with what those new routes are, especially regional connectivity. It's an issue nationally, that is being dealt with at that level, in terms of trying to get that connectivity back."
He admits another challenge is luring people here instead of going through Buffalo.
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