Regina airport to increase passenger, landing fees slightly in April

As of April 1, it’s going to be a little more expensive to fly out of Regina for passengers, and into Regina for airlines.

The Regina Airport Authority is raising its passenger facility fee by $10 for every departing passenger leaving the province, bringing the total fee on each ticket to $30.

It’s also raising landing and general terminal fees charged to airlines by five per cent.

“We all know that interest rates have grossly risen (and) we’ve also seen runaway inflation for the past couple of years. Frankly, we needed to actually raise this fee a few years ago but we didn’t,” James Bogusz, president and CEO of the airport authority, said Thursday.

“We didn’t because we wanted the airlines to come back to our community as soon as possible. We wanted to make sure we offered enough value where they could be profitable on the routes they were flying — because up until the last six months, the aviation industry has been in a tailspin.”

It’s been 11 years since passenger fees were raised in Regina and five since airline fees were raised.

In the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bogusz said the airport lost about $15 million.

Currently, the airport has about $36 million in debt, and it needs to do some “safety-critical” upgrades to its main runway. Those repairs will cost about $26 million, of which the federal government is going to pay half.

Everything added up, the airport will be servicing about $50 million in debt and Bogusz said that’s what makes the fee increases so important.

“This is something we have to move forward on. We literally would not be able to service the debt required to raise funds for this project (without it),” he said.

Bogusz expects the increase to passenger fees will raise an extra $5 million a year.

He doesn’t seem concerned that the move will result in a loss of airlines or flights. He said that the airlines are consulted before a move like this and that they understand the airport’s position.

“They are delighted with how we’ve operated this airport and the proof is in the pudding. It’s not what I’m saying, it’s the fact that they’ve proven that through the capacity they’ve offered the Queen City,” said Bogusz.

The airport just got data from December on airports around the country. Bogusz said that, despite some of the negative news coming out of aviation lately, the numbers show good things in Regina.

He said that in December, the Regina airport had 91.9 per cent of pre-pandemic activity from airlines, while other airports have seen numbers in the 70s and 80s. And even with the recent cancellations from Sunwing, Bogusz is expecting more flights in the coming months after WestJet announced 5,000 more seats in the market in February and March.

International designation

Regina’s airport is currently designated as an international airport but that’s expected to be revisited this spring.

The designation was stripped from the airport in 2021 but was reinstated  last year.

Bogusz said the airport hasn’t heard anything new from the federal government on that front yet.

“We were certainly anticipating some sort of guidance material or information as to what we need to demonstrate to the federal government to retain that designation,” he said, noting the airport has been asking for that guidance.

As far as the airport is concerned, it’s meeting all regulations right now.

“We do all the regulatory needs that we have, but at least, at the moment, they’ve not yet updated us on what’s next,” Bogusz explained.