“Workers for Site C, the oil field, liquefied natural gas, and those natural resources. We still have very few leisure trips that we rely on so much, ”said Karsseboom.
The NPRA plans 180,000 passengers in 2022, well below the number planned for 2019.
Despite the lack of leisure travelers, Karsseboom is optimistic about the new year.
“Anyway, I hope we hear on the news that this is a quick peak and a quick fall in the number of cases in this particular variant. So we can actually travel a little more normally than we have done in the past, ”said Karsseboom.
“It’s really all in the air. We have to see how things develop, ”Karsseboom continued.
The airport saw Delays and recent cancellations due to a lack of ground crew and extreme weather conditions being felt in other parts of the country.
“I know that at the airports that feed us, especially Vancouver and Calgary, they have difficulties with the ground staff who operate the planes on the ground to get these planes out of their parking spaces in good time.” To get them here. Because of this, too, we see a lot of delays, ”Karsseboom explained.
Thanks to funding from the Federal Airport Capital Assistance Program, the Nordfrieden regional airport was able to completely renew its second runway in 2021
Karsseboom says the renewed runway should serve the NPRA for about twenty to twenty-five years.
“It was a complete reconstruction. They removed the entire old sidewalk, repaired the substructure, installed a new age of loading, a new sidewalk, new lights, it was just a complete renovation of the entire infrastructure, ”said Karsseboom.
“This runway was still usable, but in a pretty rough condition. The asphalt was nearing the end of its life. It was time to rehabilitate that, and now it’s just a great smooth surface, ”Karsseboom continued.
The airport has also received funding from the Northern Development Initiative Trust for the surface renewal project. Karsseboom says that while the airport has not yet finalized the total cost of the project, he estimates the cost to be around $ 14-15 million.
“This is a significant capital investment in the airport and has made it better for the airlines,” said Karsseboom.
According to the government website, the Airport Capital Assistance Program has financed improvement projects for regional airports since 1995. To date, the government has invested $ 1.12 billion in 1,088 projects at 199 airports.
