The City of Cold Lake may be closer than ever to finally obtaining a commercial airport.
“A select amount of small airports across Canada are going to be able to work with CATSA to bring screening services to small airports so Cold Lake and Edson have been identified as two Alberta airports,” said Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland.
For years, the city has been trying to obtain security clearance from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) to no avail. Having CATSA would allow Cold Lake to run commercial air service with flights that connect directly to international airports.
Talks about reinstating air service first started back in late 2013, when local politicians traveled to Ottawa to discuss city council's vision. Earlier this year, council further pushed the importance of this project in a letter sent to federal politicians.
Cold Lake is not alone in their efforts. Since 9-11, no municipality has received the necessary security designation to start a commercial airline. Copeland stated back in February that the city would soon have to start looking at the possibility of “dirty flights” – flights that are not screened and can't fly directly into major airport terminals such as the Calgary International Airport.
However, a recent announcement from the Government of Canada outlining changes to the way CATSA is obtained now has the city getting the ball rolling on their original plan for commercial air service.
“It's great relief. We understand that they're talking about a major shift in federal policy so we had to let the process work its way out but if we can get commercial air service and a major commercial airline coming to Cold Lake…If we could get that for our area it would be huge,” Copeland expressed.
Under the new regulations, airports that don't have access to security screening service from CATSA are allowed to obtain them on a cost-recovery basis. This will allow smaller non-designated airports to invest in screening services in order to provide passengers with connecting flights to larger airports.
“By working with our partners in private and public sectors, we continue to strengthen the security and efficiency of our aviation system. In doing so, we are helping air transportation contribute to employment, economic growth and Canadian communities,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Rob Nicholson, who made the announcement on July 28.
Now that the announcement has been made, Copeland said the city is getting started right away on ironing out all of the details.
“What we're doing now is working with CATSA and Transport Canada on the details, but it's exciting news for the municipality,” said Copeland, who added that they already have conference calls scheduled with officials from the two groups.
The city has already garnered support from 4 Wing Cold Lake, who is interested in having commercial air service come into the base.
“We're ready to go in using the Medley terminal so we're going to utilize that facility and the city will operate the terminal on the base,” explained Copeland.
The main sticking points now are how much it's going to cost and what carrier is going to provide the service. Back in 2013, when talks of a commercial airport first surfaced, the city had entered into a non-disclosure agreement with a carrier. Copeland said they're setting up meetings with that same carrier again to see if they're still interested.
“The business scene has changed with the economy slowing down, but we feel the coverage area for this is about 70,000 to 100,000 people who would probably utilize an air service directly to Calgary.”
Copeland further explained that the city will first be working with CATSA to see how much it's going to cost, when it's going to be operational and then move into negotiations with carrier to come into Cold Lake.
