Town waits for plan; airport traffic continues to lag

Stephenville Airport has used another installment of its $200,000 grant from the Town of Stephenville to make its payroll.

It's the second such sum of grant money used for payroll, but airport manager Larry Smith says it was expected the airport would need this money and this is why the airport approached the Town of Stephenville for the grant last September.

"They knew we didn't have the finances to keep going [through the winter]," says Mr. Smith.

"This year we pumped about 1.5 million litres short of what we pumped last year, so you associate all the landing fees and terminal service charges, ground handling fees that go with that and that's a fair amount of revenue."

The grant money may be helping the airport sustain itself for the time being. However, Stephenville Mayor Tom O'Brien says the town cannot maintain subsidizing Stephenville Airport at the current level.

"We have to face reality," said the mayor, who added the town and airport are still waiting on the airport's business plan to be completed - giving all parties involved a clearer picture of the facility's future.

When the Georgian spoke with the mayor on Friday, he said the town hoped to have a draft copy of the business plan in its hands within a few days.

"From there, we will have to seriously consider whether to move forward with the plan - that's assuming the plan shows Stephenville Airport can be viable and sustainable."

The mayor said if this is the case, the next step would be for the community to decide whether to lobby the provincial and federal governments for funding or to look at the facility being taken over by another operator, such as American-based KAZ Aviation.

The mayor cautioned, though, even if the plan comes back and shows the airport can be profitable with a business plan in place, the town is not prepared to keep the airport afloat financially until possible funding comes through.

"At that point, discussions with the other levels of government would have to be swift," he said, "because the town of Stephenville is just not capable. We don't have the financial resources to keep the airport going for an extended period of time while negotiations are on the go with the provincial and federal governments.

Either way, the mayor said once the business plan is finally in hand, things will have to move fast.

"We're certainly on a time clock here," he said. "It's an issue we continue to struggle with because the airport is a very important asset to our community overall and we need to get something in place."

In the meantime, Mr. Smith says whether or not the airport will be able to make future payroll is dependent on the air traffic it receives.