By ANDREW WAREING
Air passenger service came to a standstill this spring at Earlton Airport following a massive decline in passengers, but efforts are underway to re-introduce the service.
\Earlton Airport manager Dalton Potter says Air North experienced a 60-per-cent decline in business during the build-up to the Iraq war and at the height of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) scare in Toronto.
Air North charters a Beech King Air 200 from Chatham-based Sontair to provide the service.
"Our aspirations are to restore the air service; we just don't have a specific time in mind," says Dalton.
The air service averaged between 60 to 90 passengers per week prior to the war and SARS scare, then plunged to between 20 and 30 passengers, he says.
The drop translated into a $15,000 to $20,000 cost burden on the airport so the decision was made by the Earlton-Timiskaming Regional Airport Advisory Committee, effective May 2, to cut the air charter service temporarily.
"It's not only happening here," says Dalton. "This is something that's happening all over Ontario. There are airlines going out of business because of what's been happening. And its business we're going to get back, I'm certain of it. People know what's been going on and why we had to do this. We're certainly not ashamed of what we've had to do, but we're definitely going to try and get it back up and running as soon as we can."
The committee is looking at a variety of options and pursuing funding to market the service, once it returns to full
operation. They are also considering possible routing changes in an effort to increase profitability of the service and make it more self-sufficient, he says.
Air North serves communities from the Town of Kirkland Lake to Latchford in the Timiskaming District of northeastern Ontario and the city of Rouyn-Noranda and the communities of northwestern Quebec.
