PORT HASTINGS: Although the past year was difficult, Celtic Air Services has ambitious plans for the local airport.
Celtic Air Services president Dave Morgan told The Reporter that air traffic was down significantly at the Allan J. MacEachen Airport. Celtic Air Services took over operation of the airport in 2017.
“Traffic at the airport is down in excess of 90 per cent,” he said. “The key is that the traffic that we’re missing right now is the traffic that generates the most revenue and ultimately allows us to support things such as winter operations, plowing and sanding, and stuff like that. I wouldn’t say that it’s great times at Celtic Air, we have lots of positive things going on, but ultimately, missing so much business last year has impacted us right down to our core. We’ve had to cut back in every possible way; we’re just at this point trying to survive through until late 2021, or mid-2022.”
Without much activity last summer, Morgan said it was been a struggle, and the Regional Air Transportation Initiative is “definitely in our radar.”
“We believe that this airport should qualify for other federal programs as well because it serves a remote area,” Morgan said. “We’re still waiting on information on the program and how to apply at this point. I can tell you that it will be up to the airport committee to make that pitch, but we’ll definitely be behind it.”
The issue was raised during the Feb. 2 regular monthly meeting of Port Hawkesbury Town Council when Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton discussed a letter from Sydney-Victoria MP Jaime Battiste.
Battiste wrote that due to the impact of COVID-19 on small airports across the country, the government announced funding as part of its Fall Economic Statement. In many cases, the impact has varied regionally, he said, which is why the government announced $206 million over two years, starting in 2020-21, to regional development agencies for a new Regional Air Transportation Initiative.
Along with funding for larger airports, Battiste said the government will assist small airports in managing the financial implications of reduced air travel by providing $65 million in additional financial support to airport authorities in 2021-22.
The mayor told council there is a “strong possibility” the Allan J. MacEachen Airport could access a revenue stream, and she plans to raise the issue with Cape Breton-Canso MP Mike Kelloway.
Last summer, Celtic Air purchased AxAir Aviation, a charter airline from Quebec which brought with it three full-time employees and a pressurized, twin engine Cessna airplane, which can hold five passengers. Presently, Celtic Air is going through the regulatory process with the airline, Morgan explained.
“We’ve working ever since to get everything transferred over and to get operations up and going,” he said. “We’re getting closer and closer to that every day. Our pilots are trained, the aircraft has been in the area multiple times doing training flights.”
Because of the loss of Air Canada and WestJet service to the J.A. Douglas McCurdy airport in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, as well as the earlier withdrawal of Porter Airlines from east coast markets, Morgan said there is an opportunity.
“They’re leaving a gap, there’s definitely a need for some kind of air services between the centres, we’re just too geographically spread out to not have a form of rapid transportation,” he noted. “We know that air charter businesses across the country are thriving and we’re just hoping to get to the party in time.”
He noted that despite public health restrictions imposed due to COVID-19, there is still a need for air travel.
“There’s folks in our province that travel sometimes two and three times a week on planes throughout Atlantic Canada to do their jobs. We have a huge workforce in Alberta, we have a large workforce that works in Nunavut, we have our fisher people that are traveling to change their vessels here and in spots like Newfoundland,” he said. “There’s so many people that are moving around that really need to go to work if we’re going to eat, if we’re going to have doctors, if we’re going to have our health care professionals moving, if we’re going to get access to vaccines. All these people have to do their jobs.”
After the airline is up and running, Morgan said they want to explore opportunities in markets like Labrador, Quebec, Ontario, the eastern United States, and other parts of Atlantic Canada.
“The airline business is one where scaling is critical to your success because there’s a lot of fixed costs tied to having these operating licences so we absolutely want to first get one into the air, then add more,” he said. “That’s where we’re going to start flying to with the aircraft that we have. Then we’d be more looking at more of the same or similar.”
Although it will take two to three years to recover from the losses of 2020, and some days they are struggling to survive, Morgan added that the airport has partnered with entities around Cape Breton and has some “big weeks ahead.”
“It’s tough going, the airline industry, and all the associated industry tied around that, are in dire straits. We’re definitely looking for the good story and the good pieces to come out of this,” he added. “We just think that a made in Cape Breton solution is something Atlantic Canada needs right now.”