Nav Canada, the agency that manages Canada’s air navigation system, is studying whether seven small airports are busy enough to warrant having control towers. The airports include Regina, Whitehorse, Yukon; Fort McMurray, Alberta; Prince George, B-C; St-Jean, Quebec; and Windsor and Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario.

Nav Canada says traffic levels at the airports were down even before the pandemic.

Regina Airport authority CEO James Bogusz says federal travel restrictions and public-health advice for people to stay home have hit his city hard. He says there might be five flights departing a day.

He worries that when restrictions eventually lift, the airport’s comeback could be hampered if its air-traffic control tower is shut down.

Bogusz and other airport leaders worry losing the towers could affect the operations of commercial airlines and hurt tourism in their regions.

Any changes to the control towers would have to be approved by Transport Canada.