At the end of January, the federal government revised its list of airports that have official “international” designations.
When the updated list of 13 came out, both Regina and Saskatoon were not on it.
Regina Airport Authority President and CEO James Bogusz spoke with reporters on Monday and said this is not just the loss of a title.
“This, right now anyway, would mean that there is no internationally designated airport in Saskatchewan,” he said. “Frankly that would be unacceptable, not only as a capital city but as the previous 15th busiest airport in the country before the pandemic, we see this as essential in the ability to market our region and to market to businesses who may want to locate here in the future,” Bogusz said.
Bogusz noted they have until June 30th to meet certain criteria that could get their “international” designation restored.
“One of the requirements of being internationally designated, is you need to hold a full scale emergency exercise every two years, where as the majority of mid-sized airports who were designated previously hold them every four,” he said. “That’s very easy for us to correct, so if they want us to do that, heck we’d do it annually if it means keeping the designation,” Bogusz stated.
“We’ll be making that adjustment immediately,” he said.
The more challenging criteria would be getting endorsements from a number of agencies like Canada Border Services, Public Health Agency of Canada, and even Environment Canada.
“So hopefully as we talk and reach out to those agencies they will be able to endorse us receiving our designation as we have for decades, that is our plan, and that’s what we’re working on right now,” Bogusz said.
Bogusz wants it to be known, no matter what, flights to and from the U.S. would not be lost because of this, the question mark is around sun destinations like the Caribbean and Mexico.
That is something the Regina Airport Authority is currently consulting the federal government on.
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