Passengers flying out of the Prince George Airport will see a $5 increase to the airport improvement fee starting in the new year.
The hike raises the fee to $25, which will go toward the $55 million worth of capital projects planned for the airport over the next decade.
Prince George Airport Authority CEO John Gibson, who gave the heads-up in July that the fee will be hiked by as much as $10, said YXS settled on $5 in the hopes additional funding can be found from other sources.
That will likely take some lobbying in Ottawa to do away with an apparent discrepancy.
"While other airports our size may be eligible for federal funding, because we are on federal land we are ineligible to receive funding from Ottawa for rehabilitation," Gibson said.
However, Gibson also noted many of the airports in the same situation are located in Atlantic Canada, which the Liberals swept on the way to winning a majority government last week.
He said both the Liberals and the two local Conservative MPs are aware of the issue.
Of the total, $15 million has already been spent, mostly going to re-paving and re-lighting the cross-wind runway, which is used by smaller aircraft, which account for about 20 per cent of the airport's traffic, when the wind is strong. Any funding YXS can draw would go toward the remaining $40 million worth of work on the list.
The projects include replacement of roofs and heating systems, re-paving of runways, taxiways and aircraft parking aprons, replacement of water and storm water utility infrastructure, road rehabilitation and replacing aging emergency response vehicles and snow removal equipment.
Gibson said the big airports in the country - Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and Montreal - are onside with seeing more federal support for airports like Prince George's because the smaller airports are part of a network that feeds into the major hubs.
After depreciation, the PGAA took in about $2.4 million from airport improvement fees last year and every $5 increase to the fee is expected to add about $1 million.
A record-setting 445,929 passengers passed through the airport last year, a 15 per cent increase over 2013, but Gibson has said there is currently no need to expand the terminal in the next 10 years. The higher airport improvement fee will apply to travel beginning on or after Jan. 1 for tickets purchased commencing Dec. 1.
Also, daily parking rates will go from $11 to $13 with weekly rates increasing from $55 to $65.
The last parking increase to take place at YXS was in 2010.
