Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
The Regina Airport Authority (RAA) could make passengers pay more in the future as a result of the provincial budget.
As a result of the City of Regina trying to find savings to cover over $10 million it lost in the budget, the airport could have its tax exemptions taken away.
The airport would then have to cover that shortfall.
“Landing, parking, bridging fees are certainly being looked at, there may be other fees, we have parking fees, taxi fees, a whole bunch of things we could look at,” CEO Dick Graham explained, at the RAA annual general meeting (AGM).
The airport pays about $2.5 million in property taxes every year but typically covers its own road, snow and water maintenance.
“In difficult times, don’t increase the tax burden on someone you provide no services or limit services to,” Graham urged.
At its AGM, the airport reported that passengers numbers have grown 0.6 per cent to 1,262,899 and it continues to work on seeing a U.S. carrier return after the loss of Delta earlier in 2016.
However with most airlines completing summer schedules already. any new airline wouldn’t happen until the fall.
Graham announced an air services development group, made of business and tourism groups, is being created to learn more about the airport and help develop future opportunities.
