Airports Canada 2009: Canada's
Largest Airports Conference Yet
|
 The Canadian
Airports Council recently hosted its second biennial
Airports Canada 2009 Conference and Exhibition - a
successful event and the association's largest
conference yet.
Held at the Hilton Lac Leamy in
Gatineau, Airports Canada included a host of
high-profile speakers, including a dinner address from
former Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Mr. Derek H.
Burney. It also featured a CEO panel moderated by
noted pollster Allen Gregg and a morning address from
Canadian Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Perrin
Beatty.
 The Airports
Canada Exhibition was a sold out affair, with 28
prominent exhibitors and top sponsors that included Gala
Host sponsors InterVISTAS
and ARINC,
Patron Host Sponsor HDS Retail
and Platinum Sponsors ICTS Europe
and NAV
Canada.
Speakers and panellists included:
- Perrin Beatty
- President & CEO of the Canadian Chamber
of Commerce
- Andy
Blackwell - Head of Aviation Security, Virgin
Atlantic Airways
- Joram
Bobasch - EVP, ICTS Europe
- David Broz
- Manager, International Affairs, Emirates
- Gerry Bruno
- President and CEO, InterVISTAS
- John Byerly
- Deputy Assistant Secretary, Transportation Affairs,
U.S. State Department
- Michelle di
Leo - Director, Flying Matters (UK)
- Allan Gregg
- Chairman of Harris/Decima
- Catherine
Harmel-Tourneur - Director, DKMA
- Tina
Kremmidas - Assistant Vice President and Senior
Economist of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce
- Andrew
Lynch - CEO of SSP
- Kevin
Molloy - Vice President, Simplified Passenger
Travel and Chief Information Officer for the Vancouver
Airport Authority
- Dr. Lloyd
McCoomb - President and CEO of the Greater
Toronto Airports Authority
- Anne
McGinley - Director, ACI-ICAO liaison
bureau
- Bruce Okabe
- Senior Vice President of Business and Strategic
Planning, InterVISTAS
- Guylaine
Roy - Associate Assistant Deputy Minister,
Policy, Transport Canada
- Jeffrey
Shane - Partner, Hogan & Hartson LLP;
Chair, IATA Agenda for Freedom
- Stanis
Smith - Senior Vice President, Stantec
- Keith Spinks
- Secretary General, European Travel Retail
Council
Now held only every two years,
Airports Canada is attended by over 200 top airport
executives, and senior executives/officials from air
carriers, retail/service partners and government. The
next conference will be Airports Canada 2011, also
likely to be held in the Ottawa region.
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CAC to Participate in Tourism Day
on the Hill
|
The CAC will be one of several
organizations participating in a Tourism Day on
Parliament Hill June 4th, to apprise lawmakers of top
issues of importance facing Canada's tourism sector
today.
The CAC will be encouraging members to
visit Ottawa to attend the event, for which there is no
registration fee. Members will meet with members
of parliament, ministers and possibly public servants to
discuss top issues for the aviation and tourism
industries.
The event will consist of
individual MP meetings in the day followed by a
reception for Parliamentarians in the evening.
Discounted rates have been secured at two Ottawa
hotels.
A registration form is part of the
package available to member CEOs during next week's CAC
board meetings. It also is available to members
via The Airport
Link.
Tourism Day is being held in
coordination with the Tourism Industry Association of
Canada and the National Airlines Council of Canada, the
Hotel Association of Canada and the International Air
Transport Association.
|
World Airport Traffic Continues to
Fall in March
|
Global airport traffic in March
and for the first quarter of 2009 remains starkly lower
than in 2008, with international traffic falling by 11%
for the month and by 10% for the first quarter.
The decline has slowed, however, in the Asia
Pacific and Africa regions, and March domestic traffic
across all regions showed signs of a softening
contraction, down 6% against 7.5% for the first
quarter. For total worldwide traffic in March,
airport reports show 8% fewer passengers than March
2008, and the worldwide average for the first quarter
2009 is also down by just over 8%.
Traffic
data for freight traffic points to December 2008/
January 2009 as its lowest ebb point. Although the
results remain very low, the declines have further
softened in March. Total freight was down by 18%
for the month and 20% for the first quarter;
international traffic fell by 22.5% against 24.5% for
the quarterly results.
Recovery from this
slump is expected to take quite some time, but freight
trends are mildly pointing up with better March
results compared to Q1 results across all regions. The
improvement is lead by the Middle East which has
registered positive growth for the first time since
November 2008.
There are equally signs that
the passenger traffic decline has reached the bottom of
the downward trend. Data indicates that domestic travel,
as well as international traffic in Asia Pacific, could
lead the beginnings of an upturn. Further declines in
international traffic in the rest of the world are the
result of a distortion due to the fact that Easter
holidays were in March last year and in April this
year.
These results and analysis for March
and first quarter 2009 do not yet take into account the
impact of the outbreak of swine influenza now witnessed
in a limited number of nations. At the time of
this release, the World Health Organization (WHO) has
not issued any travel advisories nor recommended border
closings.
The full results are available
via
ACI-NA.
|
PEOPLE IN THE
NEWS
John Crichton Receives C.D. Howe
Award
|
 Nav Canada has announced that
John Crichton, its president and CEO, is this year's
recipient of the C.D. Howe Award from the Canadian
Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI), honouring his
lasting contributions to the country's aviation industry
over the course of more than 30 years.
The award
was presented at the CASI Senior Awards Gala Dinner held
at the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa, on May 6,
2009.
The C.D. Howe Award is presented for
achievements in the fields of planning and policy making
and overall leadership in Canadian aeronautics and space
activities. In selecting Mr. Crichton, CASI highlighted
two achievements that were "of lasting benefit to the
aviation industry in Canada."
The first
achievement came while a senior executive at First Air,
where Mr. Crichton helped shape the modern foundation of
air transportation in the north between 1973 and 1990.
CASI stated that Mr. Crichton was "instrumental in the
planning and developing of scheduled commercial air
routes that opened up the North, with significant,
permanent benefits to the region's economic development
and the quality of life in numerous smaller
communities."
CASI cited as the second
achievement Mr. Crichton's integral role in the
successful privatization and subsequent modernization of
Canadian's civil Air Navigation System (ANS).
The
Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) is a
non-profit professional organization. The goal of the
Institute is to advance the art, science and engineering
relating to aeronautics, astronautics and associated
technologies, and to nurture and promote the
professionalism of those engaged in these pursuits.
Nav Canada, the country's civil air navigation
services provider, is a private sector, non-share
capital corporation financed through publicly-traded
debt. With operations coast to coast, Nav Canada
provides air traffic control, flight information,
weather briefings, aeronautical information services,
airport advisory services and electronic aids to
navigation.
|
CANADIAN
NEWS
Pearson Gets Top Cargo Marks
|
According to the 2008/09
Airport Cargo Excellence (ACE) Survey, Toronto Pearson
International Airport's cargo operations placed second
in the "below one million tonnes" category for airports
in North America.
Air Cargo World
unveiled the findings on March 2 of its fifth annual ACE
Survey, which measures airlines and airports on specific
criteria and ranks these to identify above or below
average performance.
In this year's survey, 93
airports were rated by airlines on the following four
criteria: performance, value, facilities and regulatory
operations.
For each measure, the average rating
across all companies in the survey was calculated and
set to a value of 100. Ratings for each company are
presented as an indexed score, relative to the average,
to allow for easy comparisons. A score greater than 100
represents above average performance. A score of less
than 100 represents below average performance.
Toronto Pearson scored 106 in the performance
criteria, 102 in value, 108 in facilities, and 107 in
regulatory operations. With an overall rating index jump
from 98 to 105.5, Toronto Pearson replaced San Francisco
in second place only behind Dallas/Fort Worth
International Airport, who had an overall score of
114.7. Atlanta placed third with an overall score of
104.5.
More than 45% of Canada's air cargo is
processed through Toronto Pearson, representing $31.7
billion in goods per year. On June 19, 2008, the GTAA
announced a reduction in cargo landing fees at Toronto
Pearson by 25%, effective January 1, 2009.
At
the time of this announcement, Lloyd McCoomb, GTAA
President and CEO said, "Maintaining Toronto Pearson's
competitiveness is important to our region and
ultimately for Canada's economy. It also shows that we
are responsive to the needs of our cargo carriers."
Coming on the heels of the ACW ranking, the GTAA
also announced that Cargolux will launch weekly service
to Toronto April 20th with Boeing
747-400s.
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Edmonton Expansion
Continues
|
 Edmonton
International Airport (EIA) recently announced it is
continuing its $1-billion expansion to ensure the
airport can keep pace with local and regional economic
development. Expanded facilities come online in
2012.
EIA says the the airport, which was
substantially renovated in 2000, is presently operating
20% above capacity. The terminal was built to
accommodate up to 5.5 million passengers a year.
In 2008, EIA saw nearly 6.5 million passengers use its
facilities.
In addition to more gates and new, efficient
airline technologies, the expanded terminal will also
include many new amenities including restaurants, shops
and services for travellers at EIA. Not only do
in-terminal concessions give more choice to travellers,
they also provide non-aeronautical revenue, which helps
hold down airline and traveller fees.
A number of
interim programs will be required to bridge the gap
until new capacity becomes available at the end of 2012.
For example, apron loading busses will take fliers to
aircraft required to park away from the terminal until
additional terminal gates open up in 2012.
The project is funded by the Airport Improvement
Fee (AIF), which is collected with airline tickets for
departing passengers. Starting Sept. 1, the AIF will
increase by five dollars, to $20 per ticket. This
increase is, in part due to lower than forecast
passenger numbers as a result of the current global
economic slowdown.
"While it's clear
we need to move ahead with our expansion, Edmonton
Airports is working earnestly to identify potential cost
savings through value engineering and taking advantage
of a cooled economy." said Edmonton Airports President
and CEO Reg Milley. "For example, we're pursuing
procurement strategies to lock in materials and supplies
now, recognizing that the economy will shift again, and
prices will follow."
Since 2002, Edmonton Airports says it has worked to
identify spending efficiencies and cost-savings, and
develop its non-aeronautical revenues in order to keep
the AIF flat. It has been able to defer an
increase since 2002, while simultaneously
investing $332.1 million into the airport.
"Our efforts to keep the AIF fixed at $15 per
passenger paid off for nearly seven years," said Mr.
Milley. "Now, in light of the global recession and
lower-than-predicted passenger growth in our domestic
sector, we need to raise the AIF to fund EIA's
expansion." |
Jet Aircraft Museum Lands in
London
|
On Wednesday April 15th the
first three of six Canadair T33 Silver Stars (T-bird),
operated by the Jet Aircraft Museum (JAM) will be
arriving at the London International Airport. This two
seat jet trainer, Canadian built by Canadair in Montreal
was the workhorse trainer for Canada's Armed Forces for
over 50 years.
London's new Jet Aircraft Museum
(JAM) is a not for profit foundation that has as its
primary purposes the acquisition, display, preservation,
maintenance and, most importantly, providing in flight
demonstrations for the people of Canada now and for
generations to come.
The JAM mission is to
combine the creation and operation of museum housing:
aircraft, historical artifacts, records, and salient
memorabilia,while simultaneously keeping representative
historic aircraft in the air whenever and wherever major
aviation events are held across Canada and at
appropriate international centers.
The ultimate
objective of the museum is to have one or more flyable
versions of major jet aircraft used by Canada's armed
forces since entering the military jet age in 1944.
These include Canada's first, the Vampire, the CT-133
T-Bird, CT-114 Tutor and others.
The museum
offers full voting membership to everyone interested in
preserving Canada's jet age heritage. Volunteers and
donations are needed to help keep these aircraft.
More information can be found at www.jetaircraftmuseum.ca
|
INTERNATIONAL
NEWS
New York Slot Auctions Put on
Hold
|
Airports Council International-North America
(ACI-NA) reports that the federal court hearing the case
to stop the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) slot
auctions at Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark Airports has
put the case on hold until at least June, upon request
of the government.
In March, the FAA told the
U.S. Court of Appeals that it was reviewing its
controversial slot auction rules and it requested that
the legal proceedings be suspended until the internal
review has been completed. On April 1, the court granted
the government's request.
The Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey and the Air Transport
Association filed suit in December to overturn the
proposed slot auction rules. ACI-NA subsequently joined
the case supporting the position of the Port Authority.
According to the FAA's motion, the department
has not made a final decision on whether to continue to
defend the proposed rules. Until the government reaches
a decision, the court instructed the government to file
status reports every 60 days, beginning on June. 1.
| |
Canada's
Airports:
Working Together, Moving
Forward
The Canadian Airports Council (CAC) is
the voice for Canada's airports. Formed in 1991, as the
devolution of airports to local control was beginning,
the CAC has established itself as the reliable and
credible federal representative for airports on a wide
range of significant issues and concerns.
Canada's airports are engines for economic
development in the communities they serve and one of
their most important elements of local infrastructure:
Our communities' vital links to intra-provincial,
national and international trade and commerce. Our 48
members represent 180 Canadian airports, including all
of the National Airports System (NAS) airports and most
passenger service airports in every province and
territory.
Together, CAC members handle
virtually all of the nation's air cargo and
international passenger traffic and 95% of domestic
passenger traffic. The economic impact of CAC member
airports is staggering. They create well in excess of
$45 billion in economic activity in the communities they
serve. And more than 200,000 jobs are directly
associated with CAC member airports, generating a
payroll of more than $8 billion annually.
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