Ottawa Airport gets $4M boost from Feds to pave taxiways
Ottawa’s airport is slowing restoring routes that were dropped during the pandemic.
Millions of dollars are being spent to upgrade infrastructure as the airport prepares for a bigger increase in air traffic and the pandemic recovery plan is heavily dependent on federal government funding.
“Our airports have been hit really hard by the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Minister of Transport, Omar Alghabra, “and despite the many challenges, airports have continued to provide essential air services for Canadians.”
Runway repaving was possible through a $4 million federal cheque.
“This investment will help ensure continued safe airport operations for passengers, airline crews and airport workers,” says Alghabra.
Ottawa’s airport lost several key routes during the pandemic. For example, Air Canada had an Ottawa to Frankfurt flight. With pandemic restrictions lifted, some of those routes are being re-instated.
“We’re at about 75 per cent of our passenger volumes,” says Ottawa Airport VP of Communications, Krista Kealey. “And we expect that to go higher during the holidays.”
The infrastructure renovations are just in time for what could be a busy winter for the airport.
“The seasonal schedule for holiday and charter sunshine destination flights is excellent,” says Kealey. “It's probably at where it was in 2019, and perhaps even a little bit better.”
The airport is applying for another federal fund to help add more routes out of Ottawa.
“We've made a request for an Air Improvement Fund, which would enable airports to use funds to try to incentivize airlines to offer more direct routes when they want to de-risk them,” says Mark Laroche, Ottawa Airport President and CEO. “For example, when there's a new route that's announced, the airline takes a lot of risk because they don’t know what the passenger volume is, so they ask for incentives to ensure that they're profitable at the end of the year.”
Porter Airlines is also building two hangars at the Ottawa Airport, another sign of more route options for Ottawa passengers in the near future.
“Receiving funds from the federal government, we were able to build taxiway Romeo, which is the one that Porter announced, and the construction of a hangar,” says Laroche. “This hangar can receive up to six aircraft for maintenance. It's going to bring 200 full-time, well-paid jobs to the airport.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
7 surveillance videos linked to extortions of South Asian home builders in Edmonton released
The Edmonton Police Service has released a number of surveillance videos related to a series of extortion cases in the city now dubbed 'Project Gaslight.'
Ukraine uses long-range missiles secretly provided by U.S. to hit Russian-held areas, officials say
Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.
BREAKING Manitoba government tables bill to end ban on homegrown recreational cannabis
Manitoba is planning to lift its ban on the home growing of recreational cannabis.
All Alberta wildfires to date in 2024 believed to be human-caused: province
There are 63 wildfires burning in Alberta's forest protection area as of Wednesday morning and seven mutual aid fires, including one in the Municipal District of Peace.