Post by max on Jan 5, 2007 0:15:52 GMT -3
Another one of mayor dumbs success stories. The city spent over 12 million $ on the airport and big promises from Terry Kett and the mayor that the airport was our economic engine of the future. Worked out about as well as the millions they spent on three ski hills that are still green this Jan. 4, 2007.
Traffic at Sudbury airport takes a dive
www.thesudburystar.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=342653&catname=Local%20News&classif=
Denis St. Pierre / The Sudbury Star
Local News - Wednesday, January 03, 2007 @ 11:00
Greater Sudbury Airport traffic plummeted in 2006, hitting its lowest level in at least a decade.
An estimated 16-per-cent drop in traffic could deal a severe blow to lobbying efforts aimed at retaining air traffic controllers at the city airport.
The latest Statistics Canada report indicates there were about 35,000 "total aircraft movements" - takeoffs and landings - at Greater Sudbury Airport in 2006, compared to 42,214 the previous year.
That would represent a 16.6-per-cent decline from 2005 and a 50-per-cent drop from 2002 - the peak year over the last decade - when there were 70,000 landings and takeoffs.
There were 32,940 aircraft movements at Greater Sudbury Airport in the first 11 months of 2006, according to Statistics Canada.
Although December figures have yet to be reported by StatsCan, recent history suggests there would have been about 2,000 aircraft movements at Sudbury's airport last month. That would bring the 2006 total to about 35,000 takeoffs and landings.
Aircraft movement statistics are divided into two categories: "local movements," or flights that remain in the vicinity of the airport; and "itinerant movements," or flights from one airport to another. Volumes in both categories fell in 2006 at Greater Sudbury Airport. Itinerant movements represent the most lucrative category, since they include flights by commercial carriers that generate much of an airport's revenue.
Itinerant movements at Greater Sudbury dropped about eight per cent last year, to about 29,200, compared to 31,819 in 2005. The largest decrease in Sudbury was in the local movement category, which dropped about 44 per cent, from 10,395 in 2005 to about 5,800 last year.
The StatsCan reports appear to belie the pronouncements of Greater Sudbury Airport officials that business is on the upswing at the city-owned facility.
The decline in traffic volume also could hinder the city's argument that the municipal airport must retain its complement of nine air traffic controllers.
City officials began lobbying last summer to retain the air traffic controllers after Canada's civil air navigation authority confirmed it was reviewing the status of those positions. NAV Canada, a private corporation, indicated it was looking at replacing Sudbury's air traffic controllers with lower-paid flight service specialists. Critics of the proposal say air traffic controllers provide better oversight and control of air traffic and an increased level of safety compared to flight service specialists.
City officials also argue that removing air traffic controllers would diminish the Sudbury's airport's status and adversely affect its growth potential.
NAV Canada officials counter that flight service specialists already provide efficient, safe service to dozens of airports across the country. Generally, air traffic controllers are warranted at airports, which average at least 60,000 aircraft movements per year - significantly higher than the traffic volumes in Sudbury, the corporation says.
NAV Canada reported last summer that it was conducting a review of air navigation services at Greater Sudbury Airport. At the time, the corporation said it expected the review would be completed by December.
However, that has been pushed back at least until February, NAV Canada spokesman Ron Singer said Tuesday.
"It's still a couple of months away," said Singer. "It's a long and detailed study and we have to give it the proper time. The end of December was an estimate. It's not unusual for these things to take a little longer."
Bob Johnston, Greater Sudbury Airport chief executive officer, did not return repeated calls to his office Tuesday.
But the chairman of the board of directors that oversees the airport's operation said he was taken aback by the report that air traffic has been declining sharply.
The latest traffic figures, which were provided to StatsCan by NAV Canada, don't reflect the reality at the airport, said Terry Kett, a former city councillor who chairs the Sudbury Airport Community Development Corporation.
"What is happening is our numbers are actually increasing and NAV Canada doesn't want to recognize the fact that they are," Kett said. "Our game plan is to grow and to continue to grow as we have in the last two years. We know that NAV Canada seems to have predestined us to get rid of the control tower and to go to (flight service specialists) and they don't seem to be listening to us and our economic-development plan."
While noting he had not seen the latest traffic volume reports, Kett said he questioned how NAV Canada tabulated the figures.
"We see, finally, that we're starting to increase passenger traffic in Sudbury and they just simply don't seem to care," he said.
"I think they're old numbers and what they do is they take the old numbers, they put them through the computer program and they come up with what they would say, based on the declining figures that they've seen before. But they're not looking at what's happening in reality to the Sudbury airport and it's very frustrating."
Passenger volumes are rising and more private-sector tenants are moving into the airport as millions of dollars have been and will continue to be invested in the facility's redevelopment, Kett said. "All of our leasable land on the tarmac is now leased and we are going to the next stage of development ... where we're going to expand the available space."
The Greater Sudbury Airport is destined to become the busiest and most important airport in northeastern Ontario, said Kett, who also questioned a StatsCan report indicating Sault Ste. Marie has higher airport traffic than Sudbury.
dstpierre@thesudburystar.com
HARD LANDING
Total aircraft movements (takeoffs and landings) at Greater Sudbury Airport over the last 10 years:
1997: 60,548
1998: 64,625
1999: 61,877
2000: 52,976
2001: 68,152
2002: 70,421
2003: 58,702
2004: 38,214
2005: 42,214
2006: 35,000 *
* Projected total, based on 32,940 movements for first 11 months of the year and about 2,000 movements anticipated in December.
Source: Statistics Canada
Traffic at Sudbury airport takes a dive
www.thesudburystar.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=342653&catname=Local%20News&classif=
Denis St. Pierre / The Sudbury Star
Local News - Wednesday, January 03, 2007 @ 11:00
Greater Sudbury Airport traffic plummeted in 2006, hitting its lowest level in at least a decade.
An estimated 16-per-cent drop in traffic could deal a severe blow to lobbying efforts aimed at retaining air traffic controllers at the city airport.
The latest Statistics Canada report indicates there were about 35,000 "total aircraft movements" - takeoffs and landings - at Greater Sudbury Airport in 2006, compared to 42,214 the previous year.
That would represent a 16.6-per-cent decline from 2005 and a 50-per-cent drop from 2002 - the peak year over the last decade - when there were 70,000 landings and takeoffs.
There were 32,940 aircraft movements at Greater Sudbury Airport in the first 11 months of 2006, according to Statistics Canada.
Although December figures have yet to be reported by StatsCan, recent history suggests there would have been about 2,000 aircraft movements at Sudbury's airport last month. That would bring the 2006 total to about 35,000 takeoffs and landings.
Aircraft movement statistics are divided into two categories: "local movements," or flights that remain in the vicinity of the airport; and "itinerant movements," or flights from one airport to another. Volumes in both categories fell in 2006 at Greater Sudbury Airport. Itinerant movements represent the most lucrative category, since they include flights by commercial carriers that generate much of an airport's revenue.
Itinerant movements at Greater Sudbury dropped about eight per cent last year, to about 29,200, compared to 31,819 in 2005. The largest decrease in Sudbury was in the local movement category, which dropped about 44 per cent, from 10,395 in 2005 to about 5,800 last year.
The StatsCan reports appear to belie the pronouncements of Greater Sudbury Airport officials that business is on the upswing at the city-owned facility.
The decline in traffic volume also could hinder the city's argument that the municipal airport must retain its complement of nine air traffic controllers.
City officials began lobbying last summer to retain the air traffic controllers after Canada's civil air navigation authority confirmed it was reviewing the status of those positions. NAV Canada, a private corporation, indicated it was looking at replacing Sudbury's air traffic controllers with lower-paid flight service specialists. Critics of the proposal say air traffic controllers provide better oversight and control of air traffic and an increased level of safety compared to flight service specialists.
City officials also argue that removing air traffic controllers would diminish the Sudbury's airport's status and adversely affect its growth potential.
NAV Canada officials counter that flight service specialists already provide efficient, safe service to dozens of airports across the country. Generally, air traffic controllers are warranted at airports, which average at least 60,000 aircraft movements per year - significantly higher than the traffic volumes in Sudbury, the corporation says.
NAV Canada reported last summer that it was conducting a review of air navigation services at Greater Sudbury Airport. At the time, the corporation said it expected the review would be completed by December.
However, that has been pushed back at least until February, NAV Canada spokesman Ron Singer said Tuesday.
"It's still a couple of months away," said Singer. "It's a long and detailed study and we have to give it the proper time. The end of December was an estimate. It's not unusual for these things to take a little longer."
Bob Johnston, Greater Sudbury Airport chief executive officer, did not return repeated calls to his office Tuesday.
But the chairman of the board of directors that oversees the airport's operation said he was taken aback by the report that air traffic has been declining sharply.
The latest traffic figures, which were provided to StatsCan by NAV Canada, don't reflect the reality at the airport, said Terry Kett, a former city councillor who chairs the Sudbury Airport Community Development Corporation.
"What is happening is our numbers are actually increasing and NAV Canada doesn't want to recognize the fact that they are," Kett said. "Our game plan is to grow and to continue to grow as we have in the last two years. We know that NAV Canada seems to have predestined us to get rid of the control tower and to go to (flight service specialists) and they don't seem to be listening to us and our economic-development plan."
While noting he had not seen the latest traffic volume reports, Kett said he questioned how NAV Canada tabulated the figures.
"We see, finally, that we're starting to increase passenger traffic in Sudbury and they just simply don't seem to care," he said.
"I think they're old numbers and what they do is they take the old numbers, they put them through the computer program and they come up with what they would say, based on the declining figures that they've seen before. But they're not looking at what's happening in reality to the Sudbury airport and it's very frustrating."
Passenger volumes are rising and more private-sector tenants are moving into the airport as millions of dollars have been and will continue to be invested in the facility's redevelopment, Kett said. "All of our leasable land on the tarmac is now leased and we are going to the next stage of development ... where we're going to expand the available space."
The Greater Sudbury Airport is destined to become the busiest and most important airport in northeastern Ontario, said Kett, who also questioned a StatsCan report indicating Sault Ste. Marie has higher airport traffic than Sudbury.
dstpierre@thesudburystar.com
HARD LANDING
Total aircraft movements (takeoffs and landings) at Greater Sudbury Airport over the last 10 years:
1997: 60,548
1998: 64,625
1999: 61,877
2000: 52,976
2001: 68,152
2002: 70,421
2003: 58,702
2004: 38,214
2005: 42,214
2006: 35,000 *
* Projected total, based on 32,940 movements for first 11 months of the year and about 2,000 movements anticipated in December.
Source: Statistics Canada
