By Dianne Gouliquer
Officials at Dryden Regional Airport are hoping an upcoming study of the airport will offer new ideas for marketing and business opportunities.
The study, which is being conducted by an aviation consulting company, will likely be wrapped up by early summer, George Friesen, airport manager says.
In November 2000, city councillors voted to spend $2,500 to investigate commercial opportunities for its airport via an airport commercial land development/retail business initiative. FedNor is picking up the remainder of the tab for the $25,000-study.
The study will look into new economic opportunities and revenue sources for the airport, including marketing land for commercial development and leasing airport terminal space.
"What we're looking at doing is seeing what we can do with what we've got, and what we can do with what we don't have," Friesen says. "The study is broken up into two sections: commercial and retail. Under the commercial section we're looking at improvement of the marketing of the land within the airport boundary. The retail portion of the study will take a look at methods to develop new initiatives and suggest improvements on existing initiatives within the air terminal building and system management for maximizing retail business concession and rental revenues."
Friesen says the airport will not be limiting itself to just aviation-related industries. As long as a potential opportunity doesn't conflict with the airport's fundamental role as a transportation provider, new ideas will not be dismissed.
"Of course, we want to take a look at any of the plans and what their potential is over the short, medium and long term," Friesen says. "We just want to take a look at what we can do to get over the hump and improve the viability of the airport."
Friesen notes he is optimistic the study will lead to "wild and wonderful things" for the airport, but depending on the study's findings, it may take some time to implement any changes.
"We'll have to take a look at what the report (tells us)," he says. "It's really difficult to say what we're going to do immediately with it until we've got it in our hands. If there are opportunities out there that we can capitalize on immediately, I would strongly suggest we move on them.
"However, there are probably going to be some things that will take some time and maybe even some mortar and bricks to do."
The Dryden Regional Airport opened in the late 1960s and the city acquired ownership from Transport Canada in 1996. Friesen says the airport to this day remains one of the busiest in northwestern Ontario, and was once considered the transportation hub for the region.
"We were originally engineered for 737 traffic under a regulated regime. That is no longer the case. Back when it was regulated, we were the hub; everyone flew into here. We've gone away from that hub-type thing to being part of the spokes where all the communities (like Dryden, Kenora and Red Lake) feed either Winnipeg or Thunder Bay."
But despite changes to the aviation/airline industry over the years, Friesen says Dryden's airport remains active.
The study will be a valuable tool in identifying new economic opportunities to maximize the facility's potential, he adds.
