Airport sees some positives amid restrictions
New terminal timed as Olympics showcase
By Brian Lewis,
 |
| Michael Prosser- Airport Manager |
For Delta's busy Boundary Bay airport, the "games" begin tomorrow. That's when high-security airspace enforcement in the Olympic Control Area -- a 13-nautical-mile radius centred at Vancouver International Airport -- officially begins. It runs for 54 days until March 24.
This puts Boundary Bay, the fifth-busiest airport in Canada for takeoffs and landings, well within the hypersensitive Olympic security circle and that means it'll be exposed to opportunities -- and challenges.
The opportunities are there for airport operator Alpha Aviation Inc., which opens the doors on its new, 15,000-square-foot passenger terminal Friday.
It's located next to the airport's huge Second World War heritage hangar and looks similar in design. But the new terminal is a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient building that will soon house an 80-seat restaurant and is already light years ahead of the construction trailers that housed the old terminal.
The $3.5-million terminal is fully equipped to provide the required high-tech passenger, baggage and aircrew outbound screening during the Olympic security period. It also has facilities for the Canadian Border Services Agency to handle customs duties for incoming flights.
A spacious board room that can be rented for meetings, a pilots' lounge with shower facilities and Alpha's business offices are also housed in the building, where floor-to-ceiling windows provide an impressive exterior panorama.
There are also baggage-check counters ready and waiting for the day when Alpha can sign one or more carriers to provide scheduled regional air services out of the airport, which is owned by Delta municipality.
But, right now, there's a more immediate goal.
"The Olympics for us is an opportunity to introduce our airport and this new terminal to a whole new customer base that may not have heard of us before," said airport manager Michael Prosser as we toured the new terminal Wednesday, while last-minute work was being completed.
He expects additional corporate-jet business during the Olympics, because landing at Boundary Bay as opposed to Vancouver International is less of a hassle and significantly cheaper. It's also this small business jet and private-pilot flying that Alpha sees as its niche market over the longer term.
"However, it's the flying schools here that are still our bread and butter," he adds, even though Alpha has a considerable amount of lease land that can be opened to aviation and non-aviation light-industrial development down the road.
And Prosser readily admits that the Olympic security net that drops tomorrow will be a major challenge for his airport's five flight schools. That's because all flight instructors and students must submit to the full security procedure, which includes a thorough search of each aircraft before each flight lesson.
"It certainly won't be business as usual come Friday morning. It'll be more of a crap shoot," says Patricia Kennedy, chief executive of Pacific Flying Club, the largest Boundary Bay flight school.
"Our student bookings are already down by 60 per cent, we've cut back on staff and we're projecting losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars during the security period."
Unfortunately, Ottawa has already aborted an appeal from these flight schools for compensation.
