YXS President and CEO Gord Duke said they are in the early stages of developing a plan to upgrade the runway.
Duke mentioned the runway is currently in pretty good shape and any sort of asphalt replacement wouldn’t be required in the next two to three years.
He adds a lot of work is being done behind the scenes on the project.
“We know that eventually we will be required to do a full runway overlay where they refill the existing asphalt and put down new asphalt. That is a large expensive job and we are developing a timeline to do that.”
Duke added ground crews have done a nice job to keep the current runway in good condition.
“We do a lot of work to monitor and assess that runway on a regular basis and we also purchased equipment that will allow us to go out there at this time of year to seal up any cracks and to do some of that small maintenance on what is a lot of pavement.”
During its annual general meeting last night (Wed), passenger traffic saw an 81% year-over-year spike when compared to 2021.
“We saw some good trends in recovery as far as passenger numbers, particularly in the domestic market – it is probably between 90 and 100% of where it would be pre-COVID. The international market understandably, especially to the Asian destinations is a little slower in that recovery,” added Duke.
Through the first quarter of this year, YXS has seen 100 thousand passengers come through the airport – up 40% from 2022.
In addition, YXS’s airline partners increased their frequency, and a new carrier, Flair Airlines,
introduced a seasonal service to Tucson, Arizona in 2022.
Last year, YXS handled 364,663 passengers.
To view the full annual report, click here.