Sault Ste. Marie Airport could be losing its overnight flight service station status
Posted By Dan Bellerose
Posted 17 hours ago
Sault Ste. Marie Airport could be losing its overnight flight service station status.
The station, which currently offers navigational assistance to pilots from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m., when the airport control tower is shut down, is among eight such stations identified for closure in a recent Nav Canada report reviewing air traffic services at 46 airports.
“It’s only a proposal at present, there needs to be further extensive review and consultation before a final recommendation is forwarded to Transport Canada,” said Ron Singer, a Nav Canada spokesman in a telephone interview from Ottawa.
“We are still several months away from a final recommendation but yes, it has been proposed that Sault Ste. Marie and several other communities have their flight service station operations curtailed.”
Airport staff, including about a dozen air traffic specialists with the flight service station and eight air traffic controllers, handled nearly 60,000 aircraft takeoffs and landings last year, according to Terry Bos, airport manager. There was minimal overnight traffic.
The Nav Canada proposal recommending closure of the flight service station also recommends extending air control tower operations by three hours, 8 a.m. until 11 p.m., and the installation of automated weather and advisory services.
The tower would handle 97.5 per cent of airport traffic through extended hours, he said, while an automated state-of-the-art weather service would be installed, including 24-hour weather cameras. Traffic advisories would be handled through remote location advisories.
The remote location advisory service, accessed by pilots through a specific radio frequency, is a proven method of service delivery in more than 30 airports.
“Pilots will have all the information they need to need to land through the automated overnight services and remote location advisories,” said Singer.
The airport has fewer than two landings or takeoffs per hour through the overnight, 11 p.m. until 8 a.m., when tower services resume, he said.
The airport manager admitted surprise at the preliminary recommendation, despite knowing its operations were under review.
Best-case scenario was “maintaining the status quo,” he said, with the downside a reduction in control tower operating hours, “not the total elimination of the flight service operations.”
The airport will argue for the status quo at the yet-to-be scheduled consultations.
“We are unique in that we are located on water, with quick-developing weather conditions, as well as our close proximity to U.S. air space,” said Bos.
It will also argue that Sault airport is an expanding facility, with the recent arrival of charter operator Sunwing, the city’s pursuit of Porter Airlines, and increasing numbers of private aircraft.
In the meantime, “we are expecting business as usual for the next six to 12 months, until a final recommendation comes down.”
The numbers have yet to be finalized but Bos is projecting airport landings and takeoffs to be in the 59,000 to 60,000 range for 2008.
If the projection holds true it would mean, “we are one of the busier airports in Northern Ontario but it would only be a week’s worth of activity for (Toronto’s) Pearson International.”
Year-end landings and takeoffs are bloated by the Sault College aviation program activity which accounts for about one-third of such movements, between 15,000 and 20,000 landings and takeoffs annually, said the airport manager.
Commercial aircraft arrivals and departures would not be affected by the changeover.
Air Canada Jazz offers six daily weekday flights, the first departure at 6 a.m. and the last arrival at 12:30 a.m., while Bearskin Airlines’ weekday arrivals and departures are between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Sault College’s last training flight touches down between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., depending on the season.
Additional airports whose flight service status is threatened, according to the Canadian Autoworkers, which represent 800 flight service specialists across Canada, include Rupert, Smithers and Williams Lake, all in British Columbia, High Level and Peace River, both in Alberta, Saskatoon, Sask. and Rouyn-Noranda, Que.
As well, according to the CAW, reduced hours of operation are proposed at five other stations while 11 remote advisory service sites would also be closed.
The union argues that the closures appear to be more about the current economic crisis rather than any real reduction in traffic levels.
Flight service stations, according to the Nav Canada web site, provide resources for flight planning, access to briefings on weather and other preflight information, aeronautical information, enroute and airport advisory services, vehicle control resources, monitoring of navaids, VHF/DF assistance, and alerting search and rescue of overdue aircraft.
Ten years ago, Nav Canada, reduced Sault Airport control tower operations by four hours daily, from 16 hours to 12 hours, and trimmed staffing by two personnel.