Citing the unprecedented impact that the global pandemic has had on the air sector in Canada, including experiencing major decreases in traffic over the past 15 months, the federal government has unveiled a basket of programs to bolster airports with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.
Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra launched two new contribution funding programs to help Canada’s airports recover from the effects of the COVID-19:
• The Airport Critical Infrastructure Program (ACIP) is a new program providing close to $490 million to financially assist Canada’s larger airports with investments in critical infrastructure-related to safety, security, or connectivity
• The Airport Relief Fund (ARF) is a new program providing almost $65 million in financial relief to targeted Canadian airports to help maintain operations.
In addition to launching the two new funding programs, Transport Canada’s Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP) is receiving a funding top-up of $186 million over two years. The ACAP is an existing contribution funding program which provides financial assistance to Canada’s local and regional airports for safety-related infrastructure projects and equipment purchases.
“Canada’s airports are major contributors to our country’s economy and play a key role in sustaining the social and economic well-being of our communities, and our local airport workers,” said Alghabra. “These programs will help ensure that, as Canada works towards recovery and travel restart post pandemic, our airports remain viable and continue to provide Canadians with safe, reliable, and efficient travel options, while creating and maintaining good paying jobs in the airport sector.”
The government had previously announced $206 million over two years to support regional air transportation, and $229 million in additional rent relief to 21 airport authorities – rent was waived for one to three years for smaller airports and deferred by a year for Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary.
The aviation industry has been among the hardest-hit sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic, with profits and passenger numbers plummeting amid travel restrictions and border shutdowns.
Airports get the bulk of their revenue from landing and cargo-handling charges to carriers and parking and “airport improvement fees” to travellers, all of which have tanked since March 2020.
Canadian Airports Council president Daniel-Robert Gooch said any federal support is welcome, but that even half a billion dollars for large airports falls short of what’s needed.
“We know that the $500 million is probably going to be dwarfed by other projects,” he said, citing the constant need for infrastructure upgrades.
Last week, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra stressed the need for a “common platform for recognizing the vaccinated status of travellers,” suggesting that G7 countries are working to integrate vaccine certification into international travel in the months ahead.
Gooch said airports have not been part of the discussion so far, however.
“That’s something we’ve wanted to talk with the government about for quite some time,” he said. “My organization has not yet had any direct discussions about what the government’s looking at in terms of digital passports.”
Last month, the federal budget laid out $82.5 million for COVID-19 testing at airports when travel picks up.
“We are still awaiting details on what that means, but we think we’ll get those details fairly soon,” Gooch said.