What are the Facts About the Edmonton City Centre Airport?
The Edmonton City Centre Airport has been the subject of debate for most of its 81 years of operation. Over that time the myths about the Airport have thrived. While the debate the airport's role and its future will continue to rage on, the least we can do is ensure that the facts about the Airport are correct.
Here are some of the things that we should all know:
(1) The Airport is 535 acres in size. The title to the Airport lands is held by the City of Edmonton and consists of one lot of a plan registered in 1989. Prior to 1989 the title to the Airport consisted of many separate parcels of land that had been subdivided in the early 1900s and thereafter. In 1989 the titles were consolidated and the old caveats were discharged. There are six parcels of land that abut the airport on the north and west that were operated as part of the airport at one time but that are now not part of the airport. Two of the six are owned by the City of Edmonton but are leased to Edmonton Airports as part of the lease.
(2) In spite of the restrictions on use of the Airport, the Edmonton City Centre Airport still ranks as one of the top twenty five airports in Canada in terms of aircraft movements. Over the past five years it has averaged 81,000 movements (a landing or takeoff). What is more important is that a high proportion of these movements are iterant movements which indicate aircraft headed to or coming from another airport. Therefore the airport continues to be an important point of access to and from the City of Edmonton.
(3) The Airport has two runways; one 5,868 ft and the second 5,700 ft long. One runway is equipped with an instrument landing system. The City Centre Airport has a long record of uninterrupted operation. In 81 years of operation the Airport has been closed very few times due to weather conditions. This makes a valuable resources as a alternate airport for flights to Edmonton. Without alternate status aircraft would have carry enough fuel to go to the next alternate which for many aircraft would be Calgary.
(4) The two runways have restricted lengths for operations due to obstacles in the flight paths. The runways are also restricted to aircraft under 140,000 lbs. maximum weight. These operational constraints restrict the use of the airport by many commercial jet aircraft. Most turbo prop aircraft would not be restricted. Within the current fleet of Canada's two major airlines only Air Canada's Embraer 190 and the Airbus 319 and 320 would be able to operate without load restrictions. The current new generation 737's operated by Westjet would have to operate with restricted loads and/or range to operate.
(5) The Airport has fourteen hangars that service aviation activities.
Edmonton's City Centre Airport; the Linchpin of Alberta's Air Service and Edmonton's Link to Alberta
When people think of airports, they think about travel to holiday destinations or to distance places. We seldom think of how important air travel is within the province of Alberta. For most of us traveling within the province means a trip by car.
The reality is that there are nine communities in Alberta that have regional airports that have scheduled airline service. In most cases the airlines are small although some communities are served by the two majors; Westjet and Air Canada. These airports and the opportunity for scheduled air service are very important for the communities. Airports provide access to a wider range of destinations with much shorter travel times. It gives communities greater opportunities to develop new businesses and also improves their quality of life by having services available such as Medevac flights for emergencies and special care needs.
However the reality of traffic flow in Alberta is that the major destinations are Edmonton and Calgary need to be served. To be viable, airlines serving Alberta's regional airports need efficient and effective access to both cities to achieve the level of traffic to sustain regular service. Airlines serving Alberta's regional airports are primarily providing point to point service to people in those communities that face time constraints. They are not likely to be connecting to other long haul destinations out of province.
All successful airlines need to match the right aircraft with the market they serve. The right aircraft needs to be large enough to keep cost per seat down and yet small enough to match the market and to provide the frequency that makes air travel competitive. For a number of reasons airplane manufacturers have developed 19 passenger aircraft for small airlines.
The three requirements for a successful regional air service in Alberta are access to Edmonton and Calgary, the use of 19 passenger aircraft, and the ability to offer savings in time and trip cost to people traveling within the province. The linchpin that would permit regional airlines to operate competitively is the Edmonton City Centre Airport. The problem is that regional airlines are not permitted to use the City Centre Airport. While the Edmonton International is available, it is uncompetitive in time and cost for most regional travel in comparison to the City Centre Airport. Since most regional travel is to places within Alberta, the advantage of being able to connect to other places is outweighed by the additional travel time and cost of coming into the City from the International. As well the International is a very busy airport that requires additional processing time.
The regional centres in Alberta need air passenger services to enhance the viability of their airports. The City of Edmonton needs to fulfill its function as a service centre for business and government. However the Edmonton City Centre Airport needs to be fully accessible to "commuter" airlines who want to build a network of air service within the province.
Edmonton's Tradition; the Gateway to the North the Role of the Edmonton City Centre Airport
In an age of rapid change, we often forget the importance of traditions and the reasons that got us to where we are now. From its beginning Edmonton has the service centre for huge land mass lying to the north of the City. Edmonton's prosperity has been linked time after time with northern development; the fur trade, the Klondike Gold Rush, the mineral resource development of the 1950's and most recently the development of the oil sands. Yet Edmonton seems uncomfortable to acknowledge its heritage and to build on its role as "Gateway to the North". Nothing exemplifies this discomfort more than the way the Edmonton City Centre is perceived. Some seem to feel embarrassed by the airport. In fact at times the City Centre Airport has Edmonton's highest profiled feature. Early in the 1900's the mercy flight of Wop May made world headlines. During the Second World War, the airport was one of the busiest airports in North America as a link in the Northwest Staging route that delivered aircraft manufactured in the United States to Russia for use in the war.
After World War II, the airport continued to flourish as the gateway to resource development in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Uranium City were all resupplied by companies operating out of the City Centre Airport. Even after the Edmonton International was opened in 1962, most companies continued to operate from the City Centre Airport. Up until the mid seventies most residents of northern Canadian came into and out of the City via the City Centre Airport. They came into the heart of Edmonton to use the services available in Edmonton that they did not have at home. Shopping, medical visits, professional services were all things that they came to Edmonton to do. The ease of access via the City Centre Airport was an important part of what linked Edmonton and northern communities and was what gave Edmonton legitimacy and standing as "Gateway to the North". Even though the primary access to Edmonton was via the City Centre Airport, northerners still used the Edmonton International as their airport for long destinations. Getting from airport to airport was not an issue since everyone also wanted to do things in Edmonton on the way.
In the 1970's the airlines agreed to move their service to the northwest territories to the International Airport but continued to serve Alberta's north from the City Centre Airport. Until consolidation in 1996 all northern Alberta was routed through Edmonton via the City Centre Airport.
Edmonton began to lose its affinity for the north in late 1980's. Global was in; regional was out. Edmonton was suffering from the oil bust and some felt the need to reinvent the role of the City. Unfortunately the Edmonton City Centre Airport was seen as the impediment to the new role as a global city and as a symbol of the Edmonton's old role as "Gateway to the North".
In spite of everything the City has done in last twenty years that new role as "international city" has not succeeded. Edmonton's prosperity is now even more strongly linked to the north than ever before because of oil sands development. However the City has so eroded its standing by actions such as denying access to the City Centre Airport that other cities are competing for the business of the north and are succeeding.
By tradition and by superior facilities such as the City Centre Airport the had an perhaps still has the opportunity to embrace its role as "Gateway to the North" and take advantage of the link between Edmonton and the north by reinvigorating the role of the City Centre Airport as a primary access point.
The Myth of one: Why two Airports are Better than one
The world of aviation has changed more in the last ten years that perhaps any other. Airline bankruptcies, 9/11, escalating fuel prices, low cost carriers, the internet, etc have broken the model of air service. In Canada airports have gone from the prudent and staid administration of Transport Canada to the flashy edifices operated by Airport Authorities who have ridden the wave of unprecedented growth in air passengers since 1996. What was once a monolithic structure of hubs and spokes and legacy airlines, has now been splintered into multiple niche airlines and destinations. Canada however is still a little behind. Air service is still a duopoly of Air Canada and Westjet dominated by several large airports that exercise monopoly control in their areas. What was once a business serving business customers is now a business of pleasure travelers.
Old airports once thought to be not worth operating have come back to life as airports offering quick point to point service closer to people's desired destination than major hub and spoke airports. Even airports that no longer are used for scheduled service are being kept operating as general aviation airports serving corporate and private aircraft because they of superior location to downtown areas. Building new airports and/or expanding old ones is a very expensive and arduous endeavour. The value of keeping existing airports is increasing as ways need to be found to accommodate new travel demands.
Most major cities have more than one airport. Although most people only recognize the major airport in a city most have secondary airports. Many secondary airports have scheduled air service usually of a regional nature. In may cases low cost carriers have discovered that secondary airports offer a competitive advantage and have enhanced their use. In the United States, Southwest Airlines, which has been the most profitable airline over the past ten years, has built a successful airline using secondary airports.
The mythology is that communities should have only one airport because that is the only way to build critical mass for air service. The only problem is that that critical mass never seems to ever be reached. The reality is that airlines are competitive businesses and most debates about two airports are more about keeping the competition out rather than about service to the community. Even though Edmonton's air passenger traffic has doubled from 3 Million passengers to 6 million passengers over the past ten years, yet Edmonton has not allowed any increase in the already limited scheduled service at the City Centre Airport because they say it would affect the "critical mass" at the International. One has to believe that there must be another reason.
Why does everyone think that the city centre airport is Controversial?
A true controversy is something that has a major consequence for a lot of people. So what is this controversy? The controversy comes down to this; what is the impact of having twelve flights per day to four destinations with ten passengers per flight versus thirty five flights per day to nine destinations with nineteen passengers per flight at the City Centre Airport?
Would anybody in Edmonton notice? Probably not unless you are someone who travels on a regular basis to regional centres in Alberta and had no choice but to drive and now could fly.
Would there be more noise? No since most nineteen passenger aircraft are propeller driven and are not jets, there noise impact would only be noticed very close to the airport.
Would the International Airport notice it? No, since most people who travel to and from the nine regional centres to Edmonton now drive rather than fly. In some cases such as Bonnyville they currently don't have service if they wanted to fly. If every flight were full every business day the total number of passengers would be 175,000 which is 3% of the current traffic at the International.
The reality is that the City Centre Airport is only controversial in retrospect because of history and not because it has anything to do with the present. The vote on the airport was held in 1995 over twelve years ago. Whatever gains were to be achieved by consolidating scheduled traffic should now have been achieved or are not achievable. Edmonton is fortunate to have a centrally located airport that is still a viable aviation facility. The real question is making use of its advantages for the benefit of the community. We need to realize that the airlines are looking out for their own interest. They are shareholder owned companies that are profit driven. Keeping out the competition is what they do. The best interests of the community is a competitive market.
What about Calgary?
There is nothing that excites Edmontonians more than the mention of Calgary especially with respect to air service. While we may relish the competition, the reality is that the two cities need each other. The two cities combined are just more than 2,000,000 people. In a world economy dominated by cities ten times our size, we need each other to be noticed. We need to increase the connectivity between Edmonton and Calgary so that we can take advantage of a market of 2 million and not one million.
The Edmonton City Centre Airport has had to carry a heavy burden of blame for Edmonton's so called deficiency. This blame is misplaced. The factors that have influenced the development of Edmonton and Calgary are diverse and varied. A study by Statistics Canada Aviation Statistics branch examined air services in the two communities in a study called, "A Tale of Two Cities". They concluded that location, occupational structure, demographics, etc were the critical factors that influenced the differences in air service and not airports. As well every study of the passengers using the City Centre Airport found that more than two thirds were going only between the two cities.
Edmonton has traditional been portrayed as a "blue collar city" while Calgary was "white collar". What has become apparent following scheduled air service consolidation after 1996 is that Edmonton has become bluer and Calgary whiter. The evidence is the growth in non-residential equalized assessment bases for the two cities and the development of commercial office space in the downtowns. Edmonton's non-residential equalized assessment actually dropped from 1996 to 2000 before increasing. Edmonton's non-residential assessment measured in constant dollars did not recover to 1996 levels until 2006. Calgary's non-residential equalized tax base has steadily grown and since 2000 has grown significantly. The same can be said for the development of downtown commercial space. Edmonton has not added any downtown commercial space in the last 16 years while Calgary has continued to add commercial space.
The City Centre Airport played a valuable role in balancing the nature of the work force between Edmonton and Calgary. The Airport enabled corporations to maintain management personnel in the two cities because inter-city travel was relatively easy and efficiency in time and cost. Calgary was already gaining momentum as a city of corporate offices. The termination of services between the City Centre Airport and Calgary created a severe limitation to keeping corporate functions in Edmonton. Some firms such as Telus started their own charter service as a substitute. That service was stopped when Telus moved its head office to Richmond BC. As a result that function declined in Edmonton and with it the demand for commercial downtown office space. A fact reflected in the slow rate of office constructed.
Edmonton has spent twelve years trying to show up Calgary by making it harder to travel by air between the two cities. It hasn't worked. Calgary has got bigger and richer faster than Edmonton. Maybe the City Centre Airport wasn't the problem after all.
