News from the Calgary Herald – link to story
Bill Kaufmann • 29 April 2020
COVID-19 headwinds forced passenger traffic at Calgary International Airport to plummet by 46 per cent in March.
But a spokesman for the Calgary Airport Authority said those were high-flying days compared to April and what’s to come in the following months, with flights at nearly a standstill.
“The numbers will show an over 90 per cent decrease for April, there are many days we’re down 98 per cent,” Reid Fiest said Wednesday.
Following modest losses in January and February, the numbers took a dramatic dive in the second half of March as flights, particularly international ones, were virtually halted in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
A predictable blow was the demise of direct Calgary to Beijing flights that were to resume on a seasonal basis this spring, said Fiest.
For now, the airport is forecasting a 60 per cent drop in traffic for 2020 compared with 2019, which was a record year with 18 million people streaming through the airport.
That would be a loss of 10.8 million passengers and half of the once-projected $400 million in revenues.
“It’s a bit of an eerie place right now,” Fiest said of the mostly deserted airport terminals.
For now, there are no plans to hike passenger fees to make up for the shortfall, he said, noting Ottawa has waived rental charges until the end of the year — an amount that would have fallen anyway since it’s tied to revenues.
“We’re assessing right now and we’ve paused discretionary spending and capital projects,” said Fiest.
“The focus is just continuing to operate the airport safely and securely, and support our airline partners as best we can.”
The airport authority reduced its workforce by a third, while executives and senior managers took pay rollbacks.
Its major airline clients have followed suit, with WestJet laying off 1,700 pilots by June 1 and temporarily reducing its staff by half, about 6,900 positions.
Air Canada laid off 16,500 employees but has said they’ll be rehired with the help of federal emergency wage subsidies.
Both carriers are still offering domestic flights, but at a significantly reduced level.
Airports across the country are forecast to lose $1.8 billion to $2.2 billion this year due to the pandemic.
Also rendered a ghost town is the airport’s dining and retail sector, with 80 per cent of operations suspended or shuttered.
“When there are passengers in the terminal, some of them are open but not for long,” said Fiest.
An airport flower shop owner said they’ve been told by the authority that a May 1 reopening of businesses is possible, but even that’s uncertain.
“It’s really a ghost town in here, you hardly see people walking in the (terminals),” said Monica Meng, owner of A Touch of Petals.
“But the airport is helping us with the fixed costs, so I think businesses here will come back when this is all over.”
Early in the pandemic, some staff of those businesses were reluctant to show up for work, afraid of being infected by airline passengers.
The authority estimates demand for taxi and rental car service has been reduced by 90 per cent.
For now, there’s little on the horizon to suggest a timeline for a return to normal at the city’s air hub, said Fiest, adding an economy bludgeoned by the latest oil price crash is sure to be another albatross.
“We’re certainly looking forward to the days of more people in the terminal but that will take some time,” he said.
It’s even possible the virus-induced trend of online conferencing could persist, he said, and eat into travel volumes.
Some blue sky for the airport has been a 17 per cent increase this year in cargo volume, fuelled by COVID-19, said Fiest.
“That’s due to more online orders and personal protective equipment coming into Canada, and we expect that’ll continue,” said Fiest.