Port Hawkesbury Airport upgrades to help with 4,000% flight increase
More services for aircraft and passengers are underway at the Port Hawkesbury Airport to accommodate its meteoric rise in traffic over the past few years, most of which is golf-related.
"They [flights] are actually up somewhere around 4,000 per cent on a five- or six-year basis," said David Morgan, president of Celtic Air Services which begins managing the airport Saturday.
Hundreds of flights have landed at the airport in the past year, often carrying golfers from around the world eager to play the internationally famous Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs courses in Inverness.
New passenger building
The airport currently has a 1,524-metre runway and two hangars.
Construction is set to begin on a new building with a passenger reception area and lounge offering refreshments, snacks, Wi-Fi and leather couches, Morgan said.
The facility is expected to open in late August.
The airport already has new ground service equipment such as carts to service the air conditioning and heater systems aboard aircrafts, Morgan said.
There will also be an aircraft "tug," a tractor with a tow bar, to move planes around after they land, he said.
19 jobs expected
Previously, aircraft on the ground had to manoeuvre under their own power which Morgan said is not a desirable situation.
"As you can imagine, a jet aircraft doesn't want to get too close to a small Cessna when they're pushing themselves around using their own engine."
Morgan said the private company Celtic Air Services is expected to create 19 jobs over the next few years.
"We've hired our startup team, and we anticipate next year having somewhere in the range of 11 full-time equivalent staff," he said, noting that employment numbers could be slightly lower outside of the May-to-October peak traffic period.
Tourism numbers up
The company also plans to launch an airport advertising campaign.
"The airport has not been advertised before. Once we get out and talk with the business aviation folks and air charter companies in Canada and the U.S., I think that we're going to see an uptick in the numbers," Morgan said.
He hopes Port Hawkesbury Airport traffic will reflect the rising number of tourist visits to the province.
"Nova Scotia is on track for its largest year of tourism in history, and we're hoping that the aircraft data is on par with that," he said.
