City fronts $20 million for airport expansion

By Jeremy Deutsch - Kamloops This Week - March 14, 2008

The Kamloops Airport Authority Society (KAAS) came looking for a little help in its airport-expansion plan — and city council was more then willing to oblige. City council approved a request by KAAS to borrow $20 million from the city to start work on the project. Along with the request, council was given further details on the plan, which has three major components. KAAS plans to expand the 6,000-foot runway another 2,000 feet west, with an optional taxiway loop, at a cost of $11 million. The project includes new navigational aides to help increase approach reliability, at a cost of $3 million. There are also improvements on the way for the air terminal building, which include an additional check-in area, security checkpoint and baggage carousel, expanding the passenger lounge to 200 seats, a new car-rental area and new Canada Border Services, at a cost of $4 million. The improvements are expected to increase the terminal’s footprint by 50 per cent.

John O’Fee, city councillor and KAAS president, said the upgrades are long overdue.“It’s giving us the capacity to get to and from anywhere in North America direct,” he said. KAAS has already secured $10 million in funding from senior levels of government and plans to pay for the balance through a $10 airport-improvement fee. The fee will take residents off the hook for the cost of improvements. KAAS borrowed the $20 million from the city because it can’t access the $10 million promised from the provincial and the federal governments until the project is finished — plus the city has a AAA rating for municipal financing. O’Fee said the airport’s passenger volume is to the point the existing facilities are inadequate. Last year, the the airport served 200,000 passengers. This year, the number is estimated to reach 210,000. The improvements could allow for 300,000 passengers annually.“We’re just trying to build something that will meet the needs of the community and process them through so they can get on a plane conveniently and quickly,” he said. ’Fee added the new facilities should take the airport into the next 40 years. As for the project itself, the runway design is 90 per cent complete and is expected to go out to tender in April. The final concept for the terminal should be complete this month, with a tender going out in August.The total completion date is pegged sometime in the fall of 2009.