Regina airport CEO reacts to NAV Canada’s plan for service review

The Regina airport is among a number of airports across the country where NAV Canada is reviewing its service levels.

The private company provides air traffic control and services like giving pilots information about weather and runway conditions.

Regina Airport Authority CEO James Bogusz said he received notification about the review on Nov. 12.

“What they really wanted to do is cut their costs (and) trim back the services that they’re providing at various airports based on this massive downturn in travel,” Bogusz said on the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Tuesday.

A news release from NAV Canada says service reviews were identified for six air traffic control towers: Regina, Fort McMurray, Alta., Prince George, B.C., Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Windsor, Ont., and Whitehorse, Yukon.

“This includes completing a rigorous, safety-focused review of air traffic to determine whether airport advisory services should be offered in lieu of air traffic control,” the release said.

The company says the reviews will be done in full consultation with stakeholders, with safety being the key factor.

While it’s early and the review in Regina hasn’t even started yet, a reduction in services is possible.

“But I don’t want to suggest that’s not a potential. They’ve made it absolutely clear that the air traffic control tower or the flight services that they provide potentially could be impacted after this review,” Bogusz said.

Currently, Bogusz said the airport’s control tower is working 16 hours per day (from Nov. 1 through March 31) or 17 hours per day (from April 1 through Oct. 31). He said a sharp reduction in services would affect the airport’s ability to have vehicles and aircraft moving at a high volume.

“It simply means that we can’t have as much activity going on at YQR, which is never a good thing. So it would not be an outcome that I would advocate for or, frankly, an outcome that I would sit on my laurels about,” Bogusz said. “We would certainly be working with them to have them rescind that.”

As a private company, Bogusz sees how NAV Canada is simply doing its due diligence to cut costs at a time when the aviation sector is struggling.

However, he wants NAV Canada to realize it’s in its best interests not to cut the services entirely, saying the industry will recover at some point.

“It’s always difficult to get something to restart again if it’s turned off,” Bogusz said. “And that’s why of course we wouldn’t desire to lose any significant amount of service.

“But I can appreciate they maybe have to trim some hours for example if it’s really slow. But I don’t want to see us lose something like that altogether.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an updated version of the story, after Bogusz double-checked the control tower’s daily hours of operation.