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Letters to Artvoice

THE CASE FOR THE NIAGARA FALLS AIRPORT

I’m intrigued by your article on the Niagara Falls Airport (“Niagara Falls Airport: Changing With the World,” Artvoice v5n13). I want to relate some of Canada’s experience with regional airports.

To this day, Toronto Island Airport is an underutilized opportunity that is fraught with political infighting battles between Government of Canada’s Toronto Port Authority and City of Toronto. A new carrier is about to launch there using Bombardier Q400 turbo prop aircraft that approach speeds close to jet aircraft. This will allow service to Ottawa, Montreal and northeastern USA cities. My personal hope is that this underutilized asset does provide some competition to the most expensive place to land an aircraft in the world—Pearson International Airport. Air Canada’s CEO and president has often been quoted in the press about the expense of landing into Toronto.

Developing an underused airstrip into an international hub has been done before in the USA. One only has to look at the history of Las Vegas’s airport—which is proudly displayed in their passenger terminal—to see the potential growth it can muster. Reading about how it grew from a simple paved strip in the middle of a desert to an international hub is quite fascinating.

The Government of Canada during Prime Minister Trudeau’s leadership established a new passenger airport near Montreal, called Mirabel. Dorval airport, located in the older western suburbs of Montreal, was and continues to this day to garner the lion’s share of passenger traffic. Mirabel was located an additional 32 miles away with an estimated 45-minute travel time from Dorval, meaning if one had to transfer between airports it was time-consuming and expensive.

Mirabel was built as a modern airport to handle larger volumes of international passenger traffic with larger aircraft built in the late 1970s and 1980s. Major carriers were at first attracted to Mirabel. However, because of location and other factors such as a movement of capital from Montreal to Toronto to make Toronto the business capital of Canada, the need for a large airport for business travel—the lion’s share of revenues for airlines—kept Dorval as the key airport for Montreal, since it was only 30 minutes to downtown. Mirabel has been relegated for charter traffic and cargo.

Buffalo Niagara International Airport would likely continue to be the dominant airport in the area. However, I see a great opportunity with the Niagara Falls Airport facility for international cargo and charter flights for Niagara Falls tourism. Herein lies its competitive advantage. I also wonder if cargo companies could use rail as well as trucking services to distribute goods.

It seems logical to me to approach Canadian or other private investors to pay the $23 million for the two-gate charter airport terminal supporting the tourist trade in Niagara Falls on both sides of the border. It has been said that investing in an airline can make billionaires millionaires. Your article points out that there is a business case, as indicated by a Canadian cargo company who might take advantage of lower landing fees; so private investment should be considered an alternate to government funding for the terminal.

I would like to further point out the following: Niagara-on-the-Lake has an airport near Glendale Avenue and the QEW that has runways long enough to support 737s. So your point about Canadians building an airport to handle international traffic is a possibility—however, there would be howl of protest about extending the runways into vineyards and the ensuing noise.

John Kincaide

Toronto, Ontario

A few thoughts regarding the Niagara Falls International Airport cover story:

There’s little doubt in my mind that the facility has the potential to be the region’s first bona fide international airport. The well sourced $23 million investment dwarfs the paltry and essentially useless $750,000 commitment made during Cintra negotiations, and creative control and accountability are ultimately retained within the region.

There’s no shortage of niche and specialty/charter air carriers throughout the world that cater to the tourist and cargo markets, and Niagara Falls is well suited to capitalize on their business models. The facility can be built to take advantage of recent advances in airport and airline technology which allow common-use equipment to be used by multiple tenants, lowering the overall cost for operating into the airport. Ninety-nine percent of airline decisions these days are driven by cost, so Niagara Falls already trumps Toronto and neighboring airports in the finance department.

Critics who cite the sparse traffic generated during the brief occupancy by Kiwi International Airlines should note that the airline itself had a seriously flawed business plan (like many new entrant airlines), as evidenced by its liquidation in 1999. In the same context, the proximity of Buffalo Niagara International Airport doesn’t necessarily indicate counterproductive redundancy. Orlando-Sanford Airport in Florida lies just 18 miles to the northeast of Orlando International Airport, yet a quick glance at their respective Web sites indicates their different focus and strategic coexistence.

While the infrastructure investment will erect concrete, steel and glass, the campaign’s success will ultimately fly on the ability of the NFTA or outside talent to effectively market to the world.

The push for a viable terminal facility at Niagara Falls is both aggressive and progressive with a very reasonable expectation of success, much more so than tossing almost three times that amount at a hunting and fishing retailer in an adjacent city.

Andy Hakes

President & CEO, AireXpert Technics, Ltd.

East Aurora