City Center Airport – economic assessment

2008-07-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

The Edmonton City Center airport report made public June 18, 2008 is deficient in many respects. “The main shortcoming” was the presentation of the decision to close the municipal airport at present the artificial restrictions placed on the aircraft by the international airport limit passenger service to and from the airport to a limited number of destinations with aircraft seating less than 10 passengers. This is not an economic proposition for the airlines. The economic assessment should have included the obvious use of 19 passenger commuter aircraft. A proper economic analysis should include all alternatives. The 19 passenger commuter aircrafts would be quiet, economical, turbo prop planes rather than fuel guzzling jets.

In regard to the matter of height restrictions in the downtown core this is a definitely red herring. There are many sights that can be developed to 40 stories in the downtown core. An example is Procor’s plans for a high-rise at 103rd St. and Jasper Ave. Procor has given their tenants notice to terminate their leases (e.g. Silk Hat restaurant) but have decided not to proceed. WHY?

It has been estimated that if the city center airport operated as a commuter airport with 19 passenger planes the passenger count per year would be approximately 400,000. 200,000 of these would be generated traffic moving people out of their cars and off the highways (e.g. Highway #63 to Fort McMurray and Highway #2 to Calgary). The other 200,000 passengers would be traffic diverted from the 6 million now using the international airport. Most of the above passengers would be business people both leaving Edmonton to visit our trading area or business people flying in to Edmonton for the purpose of visiting the government in Edmonton or Industry. The lack of suitable air service from the city airport is adding approximately 40 million dollars to the regions cost of doing business. This waste of money is passed on to the consumers of goods and services (i.e. Edmonton Regions Taxpayers).

The proposed sale of the airport property is a one shot deal. The net profit from an increase in tax revenue is zero or negative. The savings to business and to the provincial highways department by opening the city center airport to commuter traffic would produce benefits continuing for year after year and would increase as the region grows. What is involved in the closing is clearly the killing of the goose that lays the golden eggs or short term gain and long term pain.

The city report points out that servicing costs of the land are vague and that soil contamination costs are unknown. Also the cost of settling with the lease holders could exceed any development revenue.

A wise course of action would be to open up the city center airport for 10 years and than at that time reassess the cost and benefits. There would be little or no cost to the city to do this. 10 years in the life of a city is fleeting and a bad decision on this matter is irreversible. An intelligent decision can only be made if the true facts are known.

It is inevitable that the question will be raised by our grandchildren as to who closed the gate of Edmonton’s gateway to the North if a bad decision is made.

Written By:

L. G. Grimble, P.Eng.

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2008-06-01T22:50:00.001-07:00

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CAANA Alberta Public Web Log

City Center Airport – economic assessment

Welcome to the new CAANA web log!