Duane Hicks
The Town of Fort Frances will start charging new fees at the airport in order to recover costs and keep the facility alive.
At its budget meeting yesterday evening, council agreed all Medivac flights and all other government aircraft pay a flat rate landing fee of $200 plus HST.
There are roughly 500 Medivac flights per year and about 60 government flights.
This fee is being used by airports elsewhere and now is seen by management as a necessary measure to sustain services here.
The provincial agency Ornge pays for Medivac flights, but there was some uncertainty among councillors as to whether this cost is ever charged back to patients.
Councillors agreed that if there was an instance when a Fort Frances resident was charged for a Medivac flight, the town will have a mechanism in place to reimburse them.
The town also will be increasing the landing fee for all international flights from $5.53 to $8 per 1,000 kg, and setting the minimum fee for all international flights (turbo prop/Jet Ac) at $32 plus HST.
This will affect about 100 flights annually and, based on the minimum fee being charged, will increase revenue about $4,000 annually.
As well, the town will institute a new commercial character ramp fee set at $13.27 plus HST per aircraft.
The projected additional revenue based on 2012 flight data will be $7,829.33 in 2013.
Operators that would be exempt from the ramp fee are those that have a hangar and currently pay leases to the town.
Coun. Ken Perry also asked that Operations and Facilities look into charging more for services rendered after-hours, noting that Pearson Airport, for example, charges 16 times the usual cost for landings after-hours.
Mayor Roy Avis said he felt revising user fees at the airport is a step in the right direction.
He added administration and Coun. Rick Wiedenhoeft have spent a good deal of time over the past two-three years trying to get other district municipalities to come to the table with some money to help run the airport with limited success, but these fee changes are a start.
“All we’re trying to do is cover our costs, and we’re not even doing that even with the raise [in fees] we did tonight to try and keep that airport open,” Mayor Avis stressed.
“That airport is an economic driver for this area, not only for the Town of Fort Frances,” he noted.
