By IAN ROSS
In the height of the summer fire season, Dryden Regional Airport is a rollicking place.
It's not uncommon to see as many as 16 government waterbombers from provinces across Canada parked on the apron and as many as 200 personnel on site with firefighters camped out in a tent city.
There's helicopters lifting off, 737s landing with firefighters and detection planes buzzing about, on top of the regular private plane traffic and daily passenger service from Bearskin Airlines.
In all, that amounts to between 14,000 movements annually. For the City of Dryden, the facility represents a $14 million annual impact in the local economy.
But it's capable of so much more.
That's why an Industrial/Commercial Development Strategy is underway to map out a 20-year plan to assess and upgrade the facility's infrastructure and air service development plan. The aim is to develop the airport to its fullest potential by determining the demand for airport land and the market potential to attract new businesses as industrial or light commercial tenants.
"We would like to see more non-airside development," says airport manager George Friesen. "Aviation in small airports tends to be cyclical and if you can have more non-aviation on the ground-side that would offer greater financial stability."
At 6,000 feet, Dryden has the longest runway between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg, with all the capabilities of handling whatever traffic goes into the Lakehead city.
Two development concepts are on the table for long-term strategy.
One calls for eliminating a 2,200-foot turf crosswind runway, which runs diagonally across the main runway. In its place, a definitive hangar line would be built on the south side of the airfield with small lots set aside for new business or future expansion of the Ministry of Natural Resources' fire management centre.
The second concept calls for retaining the crosswind strip, thereby reducing the footprint for commercial development, with more area added for general aviation clients.
"That would take a major investment and we're not exactly flush with cash," says Friesen. The cross-wind runway is used by local pilots less than a dozen times a year.
There's also potential opportunity in the areas of medical evacuation, resource protection, and pilot and aviation technician training.
Even creating a mix of residential properties isn't out of the question.
"There are people who like living at airports," says Friesen, who has visited an uncertified airfield in Alberta where residential property owners have their own private hangars.
Some robust mineral exploration activity to the east and west of the city may deliver some future development possibilities to their doorstep as well.
The airport's consultants, Winnipeg's Prairie Edge Management are overseeing the plan to assess the development potential of the whole property. They're talking to potential companies and are determining the feasibility of introducing a seasonal charter service to southerly destinations.
The consultant's final recommendations head to city council by late July to mid-August.
The airport already has a good stable of tenants.
It's anchor tenant is the sprawling Ministry of Natural Resources fire management centre for northwestern Ontario. That facility is home to three waterbombers and is the base for an active government bug spray program.
One long-time resident, charter plane company Hicks & Lawrence, and its London parent company, Discovery Air, have grown out their primary flight operations facility in Dryden with major renovations to a hangar to accommodate fixed and rotary wing aircraft.
Superior Helicopters moved its base of operations from Long Lac to Dryden last year to provide aerial forest fire services to the Ontario government.
Friesen says because of the diversity of traffic, Nav Canada tells him Dryden is on the cusp of getting a flight service station.
Friesen, who has been airport manager since 1990, says the second storey space in the 22-year-old terminal was set aside for that purpose, but no tower was ever built. Air traffic advisory services is done remotely out of nearby Sioux Lookout.
