A report commissioned by Mountain View County has made a number of recommendations for changes and upgrades at the county-owned Sundre Airport.
The strategic plan analysis of the airport was prepared by Tetra Tech Canada and Explorer Solutions.
Christian Perreault, senior partner and CAO of Explorer Solutions, appeared before councillors during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
The analysis looked at operations, infrastructure and equipment, land use development, safety and compliance. It also looked at potential future projects at the facility.
The study included consultations with the airport team, airport tenants and users, the Town of Sundre, Town of Didsbury, Mountain View County, regional stakeholders, and Alberta aviation service providers.
Under a management agreement, the county pays the Sundre Flying Club (SFC) $85,000 a year to operate and maintain the airport, located south of Highway 584 west of Sundre.
“Infrastructure at the airport is mostly good to very good condition,” the report states. “Crack filling activities are occurring on a regular basis and allow maintaining to level quality.
“The terminal main entrance and other roadways are the infrastructures in the poorest condition along with part of the taxiway in front of the main hangar. The estimated cost to repair these is just over $500,000.”
The report makes several recommendations regarding raising airport revenues and how to insure future financial sustainability of the facility. Those recommendations are as follows (quoted from the report):
• An official airport fees card should be put in place and published. This card should include airport landing fees, based on aircraft weight, but free of charges for aircraft less than 3,000 kilograms. It should also include parking and tie-down fees, land lease fee and fuel call-out fees.
• Over the years, the county has sold a few airport lots. We recommend that this practice be discontinued. It may provide a short-term influx of money, but it limits the long-term financial sustainability of the airport.
• Another avenue to raise revenues would be for the county to build and own hangars. This avenue has two main purposes: facilitate the development/construction of new hangars and to generate more revenues than just a land lease approach.
• Mountain View County should consider economies of scale by combining purchasing for Sundre and Olds-Didsbury airports.
• We recommend an official training program and associated budget to be put in place to ensure all volunteers and staff receive the same required information to ensure the safety and security of operations.
“Transport Canada is very strict on the training requirements,” said Perreault. “We would recommend that a training program be put in place.”
Regarding the small grass strip runway at the facility, the recommendation is that signs be posted along Rge. Rd. 55 in both directions warning of low-flying aircraft and that no stopping of vehicles be allowed along the road near the end of the runway.
“We would recommend cones be placed to delineate the end of the runway,” he said. “There should be markers down that runway. That was our most major concern at the airport.”
Regarding fuel equipment and facilities, it is recommended that a standard operating procedure manual should be prepared that would help staff and volunteers understand the details of the inspection schedule and get familiarized with pump operations.
“This standard operating procedure should be available to any public works and airport staff that may be tasked with working at the airport and their name could be added on the training check sheet once they receive the training,” he said.
The report also included a number of proposed concepts developed to increase revenues. Those include the following (quoted from report):
• Seaplane base and water park – The proximity of the commercial gravel pit immediately north of the main runway provides the opportunity to create a destination for float pilots and tourists as well as a refuelling/maintenance centre. This concept is tied to the eventual closing of the pit, which is more than a decade away according to the pit operators.
“There is a market for such type of activity,” he said.
• RV and campground site and park – Located in the floodway portion of the airport, this opportunity enables the airport to locate ground level infrastructure that will suffer limited impact from the floods and that can be rehabilitated shortly thereafter. There is a growing demand for RV sites as well as campgrounds opportunities.
• Fly-in tourism packages development – The region has a large variety of tourism attractions that can easily be tied to fly-in packages for pilots. The county has a desire to grow and diversify its tourism attraction strategy. Multiple potential partners and relevant activities are already in Sundre, which offer the potential to create turnkey packages to cater to the needs of pilots.
“It’s a way to make the airport better known,” he said. “We are suggesting you put together a small marketing campaign.”
The SFC has recently installed a Jet-A fuelling system at the airport, council heard.
Councillors passed a motion accepting the report as information.
“I think it’s a very well-written report,” said Reeve Bruce Beattie.
Coun. Al Kemmere did not attend the Feb. 6 council meeting.
Transport Canada says there are 7,112 aircraft registered in Alberta, of which 6,152 are fixed wing planes.
