Prince George Airport Authority president and CEO Gord Duke would like to see a further relaxing of some of the COVID-19 measures by Ottawa.
Last week, the Canadian Airports Council made a similar plea stating some arriving international passengers are being held on planes for an hour or more due to a lack of room at airport terminals to handle them.
Duke told MyPGNow.com while they don’t have the same passenger volume as an “international” airport, there is one thing he’d like to see changed.
“I think there is a lot of duplication in the international arrivals process. You get asked the same health questions by CBSA, you’ve already filled in the ArriveCan app and then public health asks for the same questions so I think there is an opportunity to streamline.”
“It affects people’s connectivity for our residents and in-bound tourism and trade. It has a rolling impact, we are part of a larger network of airports and we do rely on the speedy, safe processing of passengers.”
Duke added they get a lot of passengers going through security when a lot of flights are taking off close together but the screening staff is not feeling overwhelmed.
As for passenger loads, Duke is seeing a climb in people coming to YXS as we head towards the summer. While the recovery may not be the exact same as some of the other bigger airports, YXS should see a nice bounceback.
“We’re not quite as optimistic but I see us within about 90% of where we were so it’s very encouraging.”
“C’mon out and get on an airplane.”