By Cheryl Jahn

Airport Future

Airport numbers show grim picture

Jul 17, 2020 | 3:39 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Prince George Airport Authority had its annual public meeting and the picture is grim.

“We have seen, in April and May, a very significant drop into the 95, 9 percent fewer passengers than we saw in 2019,” says Gordon Duke, the President and CEO of the Prince George Airport. “It’s had a very significant impact on our revenue stream.”

The numbers for the first six months of this year paint that picture. In January, 590 passengers passed through the Prince George Airport. That number plummeted to 40 in April and half that again in May.

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But he says the Prince George Airport is in a much better state than some others.

“All the airports have seen that precipitous drop in that 90 to 100 percent range. However, a lot depends on where they are in their infrastructure stage and their capital projects. We have had a really prudent management team here that has allowed us to be in better shape for the time being. It’s not a sustainable business model.”

The Airport Authority was originally feeling things would return to 2019 passenger numbers by the fourth quarter of this year. But that has since seen significant revision.

“What we’re seeing now is a three- to five-year range that is our planning horizon to get back to those 2019 numbers.

The good news, though, is that Central Mountain Air has returned to three days of service per week.