Ashley Messier builds hockey legacy with sights on PWHL, Olympics
4h ago
Mark Messier is her distant cousin, but this Sask. hockey product is carving her own path.
The Saskatoon Airport Authority (SAA) is staring down a big deficit after COVID-19 brought the air travel industry to its knees in 2020.
In its year-end report, the SAA said passenger traffic ended the year down 69 per cent compared to 2019, resulting in an estimated deficit of between $2 million and $2.5 million.
“We started 2020 well-positioned for growth and ready for another successful year. Beginning in March 2020, with the impacts of COVID, our revenues were just decimated,” SAA president and CEO Stephen Maybury said.
In response, the airport eliminated 15 per cent of its staff and shelved the capital program except for safety and security projects.
On Friday, the federal government made things tougher on the sector as it announced further travel restrictions to limit the spread of the virus.
With no timeline on when restrictions will be loosened, airports are facing another challenging year, said Maybury.
“It’s scenario-based and (there are) wide scenarios and multiple variables. You take that all into consideration,” he said. “Again, we’re humbled by saying we don’t really know, but we are continuously monitoring, literally by day, looking for trends.”
Despite the gloomy state of air travel right now, Maybury believes the industry will come back strong in Saskatoon, including the return of direct flights to Las Vegas and other destinations.
“We do believe there will be a full recovery in the industry, but that’s going to take time and the transition will be so important,” he said.
“Right now those scenarios would show you essentially into the end of 2024 before we would have similar passenger traffic and routing as we did in 2019.”
Maybury said without some government support, air travel is likely to get more expensive as airports try to recoup losses.