Federal infrastructure dollars have once again landed at the Ottawa International Airport, but what many would also welcome are more flights landing, too.
At a Monday morning announcement highlighting a federal investment of nearly $4 million in taxiway rehabilitation at the airport, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said he’d like to see more flight options for residents of the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
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“I know that the airline sector, in general, is trying to recover from the COVID impact … And I know that all major airlines are reassessing their flight schedules and their flight routes,” said Alghabra, in response to a question from this newspaper about flight offerings in Ottawa.
“I really would like to see more options for the people of Ottawa, and the federal government will do whatever we can.”
But it’s the municipal and provincial level where the airport has been looking for direct support with route development, said Mark Laroche, CEO of the Ottawa International Airport Authority, in an interview following the announcement.
Laroche says he told former Mayor Jim Watson about two ways the city could assist the airport. One way was a tax-break program for businesses that rent and develop on federal land around the Ottawa airport. This was approved by council in July, and Watson said then that it would allow the airport — which is a not-for-profit entity — to increase its revenue through rent collection and, potentially, the number of flights operating out of the airport.
But this won’t result in cash-on-hand right away, Laroche said Monday. His other ask of the city, unfulfilled at this point, was for an air service development fund, which Laroche explained the airport could use to respond to something that’s becoming a more common practice in the airline industry.
When airlines take on a new route, there’s uncertainty that they’ll achieve the passenger volumes and profit they’d like to. Increasingly, said Laroche, they’re asking for incentives to mitigate risk and ensure profitability at the end of the year.
“For that, we need revenues and that cannot come only from the airport. It has to be with other partners in order to attract these new destinations.”
Laroche pointed to examples of such funds in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Nova Scotia, supported by municipal or provincial contributions.
In addition to the former mayor’s office, the Ottawa airport authority has also put this ask to the provincial government, but Laroche said they have yet to hear back.
The relative scarcity of direct flight options out of the airport was the subject of council discussion ahead of approval of the airport tax break program in July, leading Watson to commit to writing to the feds for help addressing this.
As the national capital and seat of the federal government, people heading to Ottawa shouldn’t have to transfer to Montreal and Toronto first, as they often do now, Coun. Theresa Kavanagh said at the time. “We’re not a backwater.”
But there are no federal programs for the provision of cash to airports to try to woo flight offerings, according to Laroche, who explained that the Government of Canada’s role has been to invest in infrastructure.
In response to a follow-up question about his expression of federal interest Monday in helping the airport secure more flights, a spokesperson for Alghabra provided a statement noting that “our government will always support and invest in our air sector. Investments in our airports help attract more flights, making it more efficient for airlines and easier to get around for passengers.”
Monday’s announcement of nearly $4-million for the airport’s taxiways follows a federal investment of $6.4 million last year for the construction of the Stage 2 LRT station at the airport.
Alghabra’s spokesperson added that “we are always renegotiating air agreements with other countries and will always make the case for cities like Ottawa,” but that “route options are the responsibility of airlines themselves.”
Laroche said Monday that passenger volumes have reached 75 per cent of pre-pandemic levels so far this year, and he expects that to increase to 80 per cent or four million passengers by the end of next year. The airport’s charter season, with vacation flights to southern destinations, is looking to match if not surpass 2019, said Laroche, but business travel volumes remain reduced.
Speaking at an annual public meeting of the board of the airport authority in May, Laroche projected that leisure travel would fully rebound but noted that there was significant uncertainty on the business travel side – historically 40 per cent of the airport’s passenger base – with the federal government reviewing how it works in the post-pandemic era.
“Our business-to-leisure breakdown is sure to change, and so must we,” Laroche said at the time.
As for the airport authority’s own work to secure new flight offerings, Laroche pointed Monday to a recent announcement by Porter Airlines about its construction of two hangers at the airport for the maintenance of new Embraer E195-E2 and existing De Havilland Dash 8-400 aircraft. The airport authority has undertaken the construction of a $15-million taxiway that will support Porter’s plans, with both hangars scheduled for completion by early 2024.
With more planes cycling through, there’s the possibility of additional routes, said Laroche, and Porter has said its new E195-E2s will enable operations throughout North America.
Currently, the airport hosts non-stop flights to major Canadian cities and a handful of U.S. hubs, plus seasonal flights to select sun destinations.
Speaking at the May board meeting, Laroche said the airport authority was in talks with Air Canada to pitch the airport as an “ideal market” for 182-seat Airbus A321NEO-XLRs that the airline was planning to start adding to its fleet in 2024. Laroche spoke of the potential to reintroduce non-stop flights between the Ottawa airport, London-Heathrow, Frankfurt, “and possibly even the addition of Paris.”