[nwalbert]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

No arguement from me nwalbert, but there is no way that any airport in NB could hope to compete with Halifax Stanfield. Our market is way too fragmented and most government and regional services are located in Haligon.

All the NB airports can hope for is to be "the best that they can possibly be". For the GMIA, I would be happy if we got regularly scheduled service to Boston, St. John's and perhaps to a western destination (Calgary). If you added that to our existing connections to Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton and New York and I think that most people would be satisfied.

There is room for growth of course in the charter market. You can fly out of the GMIA now to Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Florida in the wintertime. A European destination or two in the summertime would be nice.

The greatest potential for growth at the GMIA is in the air cargo business. GMIA is already a close second to Halifax Stanfield in the air cargo sector. Dieppe is building a new air industrial park and the main north/south runway is being lengthened to 10,000 ft. This should help our competitiveness.

So, in summary:

- Passenger traffic at the GMIA is currently about 550,000/yr. It would be hard to imagine it exceeding 750,000/yr in the current market situation. We can never challenge Halifax in this sector but there is room for modest growth with new scheduled destinations and increased charter routes.
- The greatest opportunity for expansion is in air cargo. It is not inconcievable that this sector could at least double in size.
- Ancillary services at the airport (Moncton Flight College, Transport Canada, RCMP Air Service and NB Air Ambulance) will remain important.

Exactly, segmented airports wont work. If NB ever wants to be serious we need a central airport. The cost in operational fees would pay for the new construction. Combining the airports would give us over 1 million passengers. With the increased efficiency and larger numbers we would see new routes and cheaper fares and I am sure it would quickly grow to 1.5 million. Now, we could start competing with Halifax.