Airport receives interim financing

Stephenville Airport Corporation will receive a guarantee of an additional $250,000 to its line of credit so that it may continue to negotiate with a third party operator.

Corporation chair Sean Tilley welcomed this news from the provincial government last week and said that KAZ Aviation - a possible operator the board has been in negotiations with - will be submitting its business plan to the provincial government.

"We don't have the staff within our board or management structure to look at foreign direct investments of that magnitude," he said. "So that's some expertise help from the province we're really appreciative of and it gives us an increased level of confidence in terms of our go forward."

Mr. Tilley said with revenue generated by recent extra flights at the airport and the extension on the line of credit, there should be enough money to see the airport through the fall.

In announcing the funding for the airport, Shawn Skinner, Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development said it would be the last investment to the airport under its current model.

He also said future support would occur only if the airport can secure long-term financing that ensures sustainability.

Sunwing not returning

Airport officials received some bad news last week, as they learned Sunwing Airlines would not operate between the town and Toronto this year.

A customer relations operator at Sunwing confirmed this for the Georgian.

Mr. Tilley said although the airport is not in the precarious financial situation it was a few weeks ago, with Sunwing pulling out it does bring them back to square one.

"So we've had some successes and some failures," he said.

"It's a legitimate issue for us. With some of the money from the credit line we're looking at restructuring our management group and trying to build our revenue base, so obviously the timing is very poor."

Mr. Tilley said the board is already looking at the duties of its managers at the airport and are considering hiring an additional, part time, staff member to fill a business management role to restablish contacts in the aviation industry.

"Obviously we're really high on KAZ getting here," he said. "But if they don't, we need to have an alternative plan and the alternative plan has got to be to generate our own revenue, so we're doing these things in parallel."

reporter@thegeorgian.ca